02 When You Wish Upon A Star
by Tzarina8472
Summary: Mistaking a distant Super Sonic for a shooting star, little Francine Nightflyer sets off on an adventure recruiting Sonic and his friends in the search for her missing twin brother. But Jack Nightflyer isn't the only missing person on Mobius. Eggman, strangely silent these days, denies everything, but Sonic isn't so sure...
1. Prologue: The Wish

The Wish

Frankie slammed the screen door. "Ain't nobody's gona talk about Jack that way!"

"Frankie!" Her mother, Helen, pushed the door open and stepped outside. "Your brother has been missing for three weeks. He's dead."

"No he's not!" Frankie spun around and faced the simple cottage that was her home. "I'm gona to find him! And he'll be quite alright, Mother!"

Helen started to cry. "Frankie, please don't leave. I don't want to lose you too."

Frankie looked at the reddening sky. "Ok." _But I'm leaving before you're awake._

"Thank you sweet heart. I love you, very much." Helen held out her arms for a hug.

Frankie walked past her into the house. "Love you too." _And I'm gona prove it by bringing Jack home!_

* * *

In the darkness, Frankie waited silently in bed until her mother's cat footsteps quieted, turned off the light, and padded into her room. After ten minutes of no noise, Frankie slid out of bed, tiptoed out her room, and put her ear next to Mother's door. She couldn't hear anything, but better be safe. Frankie used her father's gift of sonar to see inside the room without opening the door.

A three dimensional image arose in Frankie's mind, Mother was in bed and sleeping like a baby.

"Took ya long enough!" Frankie whispered. She checked her watch. 11:34 pm. "Oh well. Time to get to work." She stood up and opened the linen closet. A couple pillows and a blanket to stuff her sheets with would do nicely for a couple of hours. After that, well… Frankie picked up her spy voice recorder. "Mmm… I'm tired. Go away please. Just another ten minutes, school ain't started yet after all. Please? Thank you Mommy." She set it to sound activation and turned the volume up to max. Then she put it on her pillow, slung her backpack over one shoulder, and proceeded climb out the window.

To escape through the window, Frankie opened the glass and removed the bug screen. She slung her feet out the window, grabbed the screen, and landed in the side flower bed. "Ah, crumb." She turned around to close the window and put the screen in place. Then she jumped out of the flowers and did what she could to erase her tracks. Frankie stood back. "Hmmm…" _It looks just fine for now, but what about when the sun in up? Sigh. It'll have to do._

The moon was full, so the road wasn't hard to follow. When Frankie arrived at the Great River, she look up. The stars twinkled back. She smiled. "Good luck to us, Jack. I'll find you." _But where should I start to lookin? And when I find him, will he be in trouble? I should get some help. Someone who ain't gonna tattle, who'll help me for the sake of helping, who can protect me if we find trouble… Oh great! How long is this journey even going to last? Maybe if my friend had a fast car or something, we'd find Jack sooner…_ Frankie snapped her fingers. "I know! But then again, how would I even catch up to him? Much less find him..." Frankie sighed and sat on the river bank, pushing her raft to the end of its tether with her toe. _Maybe I should just go back._

Something bright flashed across the horizon. "What was that?" Frankie jumped up. "A shooting star?" She saw the flash again and again. A bright yellow flash, zipping back and forth and flashing brighter than any other star in the sky. It was so close to the horizon, but Frankie hoped it would count. Solemnly, she folded her hands and whispered, "Star of wonder, star of flight, brightest star I saw tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, get Sonic the Hedgehog to help my plight!" The shooting star flashed once more as though to say yes, then it was gone.

Frankie grinned and suddenly felt the need to hurry. She pulled up the stake that kept her raft on this shore and climbed on board, prepared to do whatever it would take to find her twin brother. (Whatever that may be...)


	2. Chapter 1 Dark Dealers

Dark Dealers

"Sonic! Help us!"

"Mr. Sonic! Help!"

Sonic stood absolutely still, glaring at the guy… thing who was laughing at him. He stole a glance at the laser orbs hovering barely a foot over his head, simple in appearance but quick enough to have made him wish he'd brought a few extra rings.

"So it's 'Sonic', isn't it?" The... thing, was little more than a voice coming from a black cloud. "I've been waiting for you."

Sonic crossed his arms and glared at the cloud. "Where are Cream and Amy?!"

"Patience! Such rash behavior will only earn even more attacks from my motion sensitive drones."

Sonic didn't need to be reminded. Those drones blew 'annoying' out the window. They were smart too. They didn't just aim for Sonic while he was moving, they aimed where he was going to be. He had a slight burn to prove it.

"Sonic, the females you are seeking to rescue are one down either hall." Two circular doors dilated open, one to the left of the black cloud, one to the right. "I will allow you to take one of them home if you refrain from damaging this ship any further, but the other I would not let you take."

"Uh, sorry pal. I don't do compromises." Sonic looked down the dark hall on his left. Nothing.

"Then I offer you a choice. Either leave this place, or rescue the girl you pick. I will tell you who is down which door. However, if you attempt to rescue both ladies, I will have the latter one killed before your eyes. All I have to do is think, and she will die."

Sonic growled. _What does someone do in a situation like this?_ Then he remembered the locket. "Would you let me talk to both of them and rescue the other one?"

"Silly boy, they can hear you right now! If you have something you want to say, say it."

"What I meant was," Sonic held up a probably modified heart shaped locket. "I would like to give this to one of them. Then take the other home."

"Hmmm…" The cloud appeared to be thinking. "As you wish. I sense nothing dishonest in that locket."

"Good." Sonic looked down the hall on the right. "Now who's in which door?"

"The one you call Amy in on your left, the one you call Cream in on the right."

Sonic stared up at the laser drones. "One more thing…"

"I am an honest being. You will just have to trust me."

He gritted his teeth and bolted for the door on the left. The drones followed, but did not fire. Sonic ran full speed down the long and dark corridor. He couldn't see anything, like he was running through a void. After a solid minute, Sonic knew something was wrong. "I saw the outside of your ship! There's no way it could be _this_ big!"

"Might I remind you, Sonic, patience."

"Of course!" Sonic skid to a stop and walked. Instantly, he was blinded by the sudden bright light. "No way!"

"Sonic!" Amy jumped up and hugged him around the neck.

"Amy!" He pushed her arms away, squinting. "Listen. I have something for you." Sonic blinked away the spots until he could see her.

She reached for the object hanging from Sonic's hand, her wrists encased in large, unchained shackles. "Your locket?" Amy asked. "I heard. I think this big black cloud guy is telepathic somehow. I was shouting to you, but you didn't seem to hear me."

"I couldn't hear you." Sonic undid the locket's clasp and put in around her neck. "Keep this on."

Amy opened it and looked inside. "You know," she showed it to him. "I gave this to you first. My picture is still inside it."

"Well, now I'm giving it back."

"You could have at least changed the picture."

"There wasn't time."

"Of course not." Amy closed the locket and turned away. "I'm the one who's getting left behind. Aren't I?"

"Are you mad?" Sonic hoped not.

"No. I can handle myself better than Cream, and she's probably scared to death already." Amy looked at him again. There were tears in her eyes. "Just… Hurry back, ok?"

"Ok." Sonic turned around, but there was no door.

"Promise?"

"Amy, I promise I'll come back for you. Just keep that locket on." Sonic felt the black walls until his hand seemed to disappear.

She kissed her glove and waved. "Bye bye."

"Good luck." Sonic walked out of the room. This time, he walked all of ten short steps before emerging into the room with the black cloud.

"When you arrive, Cream's restrains will deactivate. Then you may go in peace."

Sonic ignored him and kept going to the other hall. Ten steps, then he squinted.

"Mr. Sonic!" Cream jumped up and her new arm bands fell to pieces.

"Come on." Sonic picked her up. "Cheese is waiting for you."

"What about Amy?" Cream hung on.

Sonic carried her out the dark hall, through the vacant 'cloud room'. He glanced around for it. "Amy's got a stiff upper lip. She'll manage." He noticed the laser drones waking up in the corner. "Hang on!" Sonic started bolted out the way he'd come in. The drones zipped along, keeping up enough to keep Sonic glancing over his shoulder. To make things even more difficult, the gravity in this corridor changed every couple of seconds. Count to three, and be running on the wall. Six would have you on the ceiling, and so on.

All the time, the drones silently hovered after them.

"Mr. Sonic!" Cream pointed ahead. The passage opened out into space, but the glowing door rim betrayed the presence of an atmospheric force field.

"We can jump through it!" Sonic sped up, breathing deeply. "Hold your breath!"

Cream sucked in a huge breath and held her nose. Sonic closed his mouth and leaped from the edge of his runway. A tickling sensation ripped through them as they passed into and again out of the air lock.

Silence. Less of a vacuum than true outer space, the air in this part of the atmosphere was too thin to breath or fly the Hurricane in. Still, with the stars winking at them as an unbelievably small Mobius slowly grew steadily larger, it was almost possible to forget about leaving Amy behind.

Sonic hoped Tails would see them.

Slowly, the wind began tugging at their faces. Tiny strings of moisture stung Cream's eyes and forced Sonic to squint. Not breathing became especially hard now.

A tiny speck appeared below and ahead of them. _Tails in the Hurricane!_ Sonic let out a tiny bit of breath and pulled a flare gun out of hammer space and fired it. The miniature Hurricane rocketed forward until it was directly below them, then it pointed towards ground in a controlled nose dive. All part of the plan.

Tails reversed the engines to keep the rocket shaped speed plane falling slow enough for Sonic and Cream to catch up. Then he matched their decent and flicked the switch that slid open the bubble dome over the passenger seats. Sonic pushed Cream in ahead of himself and shut the bubble.

Sonic quickly got the oxygen mask on his face so he could help Cream with hers. "Cream! Breath into this." He put the mask over her mouth.

She held the mask over her face while Sonic adjusted the straps in back. "Thank you Mr. Sonic." Cream looked up. "Cheese!"

"Chao!" Cheese pressed his face against the inside of Tails's pressurized bubble. "Chao chao chao!"

"I'm going to start leveling out our decent," Tails looked over his shoulder. "Buckle up back there!"

"Mr. Sonic," Cream found her buckle and searched for the remaining belts. "If you couldn't fly the plane up that high, how did you get into Mr. Scary Cloud's space ship?"

"I had to turn Super, Cream." Sonic fastened the six point seat belt. "Then that thing had major defenses to knock out before I could get on board. I ran out of rings just as I got inside. Here you go." He handed her the last part of her belt.

"Thank you."

* * *

"Thanks Mister!" Frankie hopped out of the old man's pick up and waved.

The old badger stuck his white head out the window. "Just glad I could help a fine young miss." He smiled and drove away.

Frankie sat on a log next to the dusty road and took in her surroundings. A stream ran under a culvert and through the woods just on the other side of the gravel packed ditch that served as a decent place to drive your car. With the sun on her back, Frankie's fur had a chance of drying. "Thinks are starting to look better for us, Jack." She shaded her eyes and peered up into the cloudy autumn sky.

A jet of some sort flew north, almost directly over Frankie's log. _Pretty small to be a jet._ Frankie blinked. _Privet plane with a rocket engine. Military jet used by GUN._ She squinted. _No way. It ain't gray. All GUN planes are gray. So what color is that?_ Frankie stood up and squinted harder. The plane, jet, rocket, thing appeared to be descending, making it easier to see the circular symbol on the under belly. _That's a wheel of primary colors! That plane is dark blue! Sonic has got to be in that thing!_ Frankie started running north, beside the road.

She followed the plane until it disappeared behind a stand of trees. Frankie stopped for breath. "Come on, cat face! There's more in you than that!" She began walking forward, eventually entering the forest.

At first, the tree critters were suspicious, but eventually began to speak their cheery noises again. Aside from the tweets, whistles, and chatter, things were very peaceful. In contrast, Frankie's aching feet screamed at her for a rest, but her bleeding heart pushed her onward until her knees just couldn't take it anymore. She knelt, almost collapsing in the grass, wondering exactly when the road had turned away from a northward direction. The creek had snaked its way across Frankie's path again, this time blocking her with a shallow spring.

"Water." Frankie slid the backpack off her shoulder. She unzipped the zipper and hunted around in it until her hand emerged with the water purifier. Dropping the filter hose into the deep spring and pumping the handle, Frankie sipped a nice long drink after almost twelve hours of nonstop travel. "I'm bushed. Ain't there not a single soft spot around here to kick your feet up?"

"Travel all night?"

Frankie nodded. "Yeah, didn't get any breakfast neither... Now wait just a foggy eared moment!" She looked up into the forest and firmly set her hands on her waist. "How bad does it have to be before I start talking to trees?"

"That depends on your problem."

Frankie looked over her shoulder. A tall blue hedgehog with a slightly downcast expression stood there. "You weren't there a bit ago."

"I am now."

Frankie stood up, flicking her tail around. "Say! You're a hedgehog."

"That was the case last I checked." He smiled.

"I bet you could where I could find Sonic the hedgehog?" Frankie folded her hands and blinked really fast, the way she'd seen in movies when a girl wanted something.

He laughed. "Kitty, you've found him!"

Frankie opened her mouth.

"What did you expect?" Sonic asked.

"I…" Frankie shook her head to clear her thoughts. "I didn't know… I thought yours was a color blue a tweed lighter than that."

"Oh, that?" Sonic waved away a falling leaf. "That part comes from the leaves that haven't fallen yet. It tends to be darker in the forest than in the spotlight."

"Silly me." Frankie suddenly felt shy. "I also thought I'd find you fighting Eggman, or saving the day. Something like that."

He sighed. "Something like that. Egghead's got to have a day off every now and then too, you know." He caught another falling leaf and looked at it. "Boring!"

Frankie giggled.

Sonic suddenly flicked the leaf back in the air. "So what's your name?"

"My name?"

"You have one, don't you?"

"Everyone does!" She held her arms out. "Oops." Frankie held up a hand to shake. "Francine Nightflyer."

Sonic shook her hand. "You are not a bat."

"Dear old dad was." Frankie stooped to pick up her backpack. "Uh, have you seen…"

"This?" Sonic handed her the water purifier.

"Thanks." Frankie put it in her pack. "I'm a looking for my brother. He went missing a couple of weeks ago."

He looked down. "Francine, I'm going to tell you right now. Usually when an average person has been missing that long, it's not good."

"Jack ain't average." She glared up at him.

"Ok." Sonic offered to carry the pack, but Frankie shrugged away. "Let's hear about Jack. Do you know how he disappeared?"

"No. Didn't so much as smudge the river bank on his way out neither. Just up and vanished. Which way we going?"

Sonic shrugged. "Where do you want to go?"

"I want to find my brother!" Frankie sat down in the dirt and cried.

"Uh," _Oh great! Not even Cream cries like this._ Sonic tried to comfort her. "Don't cry, we'll help you find him."

She looked up between sobs. "You will?"

"Of course!" Sonic helped Frankie stand up. "Let's get you somewhere you can rest for a while. Then you can tell us everything."

Frankie curled up and allowed herself to be carried. "Thanks."


	3. Chapter 2 Crystal Dome

Crystal Dome

The orange and black kitten had fallen asleep before Sonic reached Cream's house.

"Sonic, please do come in." Vanilla opened the door for him, seeing hat his arms were busy. "Who do you there?"

"A friend for Cream, but I think she's a little tired." Sonic quietly stepped inside.

"Did someone say my name?" Cream appeared out of her room. "Mr. Sonic!"

"Please try to be a little softer, Deary." Vanilla waved for Cream to come closer.

Cream tip toed over. "Wow. Who is this Mr. Sonic? She has really big ears."

"This is Francine." Sonic knelt for Cream to see better. "I found her in the woods. Would you be willing to let her stay here until we find Amy?"

"Oh, Mother!" Cream's face glowed as she gazed into Vanilla's eyes. "Please let's let her stay here. She can have my bed until she wakes up."

Vanilla laughed softly. "Of course we can. This way please, Sonic."

Sonic followed them into Cream's room and laid Frankie on the bed. "She's looking for a brother named Jack, and has been up all night getting here... from a river? I'm not sure. I'm guessing she's close to six or seven. Before she fell asleep, she sounded like she was ready to take on the world." He set her pack at the foot of the bed. "I'll be out and about if anyone finds anything interesting." Sonic ran for the front door.

"Sonic!" Vanilla called him back.

He stopped. "Yes Ma'am?"

"I never got the chance to properly thank you for rescuing Cream this morning." She went into the kitchen.

Sonic followed her.

Cheese sat on the counter, eating one of the fresh cookies off a plate. Vanilla patted the chao on the head and picked up a cookie. "Here you go. And thank you."

Sonic gave her a thumbs up. "Anytime!" He put the cookie in his mouth. "Mmm... This is good." He waved as he walked out the door, then strolled back to Tails's little lab. As usual, Sonic's definition of 'strolling' meant speeding between 150 and 200 miles per hour.

Tails opened the door.

"Oof!" Sonic took a step back.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sonic!" Tails came out and shut the door. "I didn't know you were there."

"No sweat, Little Buddy!" Sonic rubbed his nose. "Did you finish locating the tracker that I _didn't_ know about?"

He nodded. "There was a little interference, but there's something strange about where she showed up. I thought with a ship like that, the alien could have taken Amy to the moon by now. For some reason, the signal from the locket is just a few miles south of here."

Sonic faced the closest edge of the forest. "South, eah?"

"Strange?" Tails looked around Sonic.

"Yeah." Sonic nodded. "I found a young cat in those woods. She fell asleep half way to Cream's house."

Tails pulled out a coordinate finder. "According to this, we should go that way." He pointed to the woods.

"Hang on then!" Sonic grabbed Tails's outstretched arm and charged.

"Yeah! Ah ha ha!" Tails laughed, twirling his tails to stabilize himself. "I always love this!" He looked at the device in his other hand. "Sonic stop… NOW!"

Sonic leaned back and dug his heals in the grass. "Hey! This is the same place I found Francine."

Tails waved his scanner around. "I didn't expect _this_. The signal is right here," he pointed down. "But there's nothing here."

Sonic glanced at the spring and shuddered. "Underground?"

He looked up. "That could be."

"There's no way I could dig far enough away from that spring and still reach her."

Tails sighed. "I'll let you know if I find anything interesting." He waded in the spring until he found a deep enough spot, then submerged.

Sonic kicked up a flat pebble and skipped it against the water.

After a couple of minutes, Tails's soggy head bubbled above the surface. "Trouble, and I'm going to need your help."

"Did you find her?" Sonic stepped in the water.

"Oh yeah, but you gotta see this." Tails waved for him and dove down.

Sonic took a deep breath and waded into the hole, letting gravity take over. He sank until he spread his feet before entering a much narrower part of the shaft down, where fresh water flowed up from the continuing crack deep into the ground. Sonic looked up at Tails.

Tails pointed to a hole in the side of the shaft leading to an underground cave. The hole seemed to be capped by a watery mirror, and when Tails swam up through it the mirror effect rippled violently.

Sonic jumped and reached for the hole. Climbing up, he brought his head above the surface. "That wasn't too bad." He pushed himself out onto the surface of the cave.

"Check this out." Tails waved a drippy hand.

"Wow."

Amy was under some kind of crystal dome, and appeared to be sleeping peacefully. The locket was still around her neck, but she was holding it in her hand in a life like fashion. Other things were strange about the way she was resting. Amy's left foot was in the air by an inch, but her feet were level with each other as though she had been frozen while standing.

Tails walked over and wrapped his knuckles on the dome.

"She didn't wake up." Sonic did a quick spin to rid himself of extra water. "What _is_ that thing she's in?"

"I scanned the material this dome is made of, and I knew I couldn't break through it alone." Tails looked at him.

Sonic stood next to the dome. "What is it made of?"

"Diamond."

"Ouch." Sonic crouched and spun. "But nothing too hard for me to break through." He crouched next to the low dome and spun. After about ten seconds, the dome shattered.

"AH!" Amy fell on her back. She opened her eyes. "Sonic, I thought you left."

"He did." Tails started scanning Amy.

"Tails?" Amy blinked and squinted. "How did you get the Hurricane up here? Why am I on the floor?"

"Amy, we're back on Mobius." Sonic helped her stand up.

Tails knelt on the floor. "Amazing. It seems that Amy was suspended in some kind of Chaos Control, preventing her from experiencing the passage of time. When you spun through that dome, Sonic, it broke the time freeze."

"How is that possible?" Amy asked. "Sonic only just left that weird cell."

"You mean that cloud didn't do anything to you?" Sonic asked.

"No, nothing." Amy fingered the locket. "You just left and I touched this. Then suddenly I was on my back and you were standing over me."

"Weird."

"You know what else is weird?" Tails scanned the walls. "This is a dirt room, in an underground cave, sealed off by water, and yet the walls are still smooth."

Amy went and put her hand on the wall. "You're right. And the air is fresh in here too."

"Does that mean that there is some air vent we didn't find?" Sonic looked around hopefully.

"If there was one, then this place would be filled with water." Tails put away his scanner. "Wait a second! Where did those diamond shards go?"

Everyone searched the dark floor. Even though the only light came in by reflecting off the water, it was clear that the smooth floor was clean.

"This is too weird if you ask me." Amy frowned. "So, how are we getting out of here?"

* * *

Frankie opened her eyes. "Where am I?"

A little rabbit popped up with a chao hovering above her head. "Hello. I'm Cream, and this is Cheese."

"Where am I?" she asked in a more threatening tone.

Cream sat back. "Please don't get angry. Mr. Sonic brought you here and asked if you could stay until you woke up. I'm really sorry…"

"Cream?" Frankie took another look at the chao. "And Cheese?" She relaxed and smiled. "I'm meeting more and more famous people every day."

"Chao?" Cheese flew forward and looked Cream in the face.

Frankie pushed herself to a sitting position. "Oh, what a night..."

Cream stood up. "Are you hungry? Mother made a whole plate of cookies this morning. Would you like one?"

"Please." She rubbed her abnormally large cat ears as Cream and Cheese left the room. "Whoever put me here didn't know how much I hate sleeping on my ears."

Cream bounced back in with a cookie in each hand, and Cheese flying behind her and eating another. "They're chocolate chip and coconut oatmeal." She gave one to Frankie.

Frankie took a small bite. "Mmm… I didn't think nobody's cookie's couldn't taste better than Mom's. You'll have to give me the recipe."

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese nodded.

Cream giggled. "I think everyone's mother should be the best cook they've ever had, that way everyone's mom is the best!"

"That's the way it ought ta' be." Frankie opened her mouth and shoved half the remaining cookie in her mouth. "Name's Frankie, by the way."

Cream looked up questioningly. "Mr. Sonic said your name was Francine."

"Francine is my given name. I call me Frankie." She winked, nibbling on the bit of yummy cookie left.

Cream laughed. "Mr. Sonic also said you were looking for your brother." She took another small bite.

Frankie nodded, and finished the cookie. "Jack is my twin. He was gona go out caving with the guys, but they said he was a no show and went without. Three weeks ago. Then he was gone missing. I figured when Momma was telling me to abandon hope all ye who enter here, it was time for me to pull my own disappearing act and come find you guys."

"How terrible!" Cream looked horrified.

"Chao!" Cheese was coming to the end of his cookie.

"I don't know what I would do if my mother told me to forget about my twin, if I had a twin." Cream's face suddenly brightened. "But I know Mr. Sonic and his friends would never give up until they rescued them or found out what had happened."

"You're _so_ lucky to always be around friends like Sonic the Hedgehog." Frankie traced a square on the bed quilt with her finger.

Cream was silent for a minute. "Being friends with Mr. Sonic and Tails and Amy Rose is great most of the time, but sometimes it can be very dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

Cheese nodded. "Chao!"

"Early this morning, a scary monster flew in through the window and kidnapped me. It wasn't even a robot like Dr. Eggman always uses. Mr. Sonic had to come almost into outer space to rescue me from the evil scary cloud." Cream looked up. "But Amy and I have some really nice tea parties on that stump outside all the time... What's wrong?"

Frankie's mouth was open. "You were kidnapped this morning? And then you got rescued? And you still find time to bake cookies and have tea parties?!"

Cream and Cheese looked at each other. Cheese shook his head. "Chao, chao! Chao."

"Mother made the cookies," Cream looked back up to Frankie. "Not me."

Frankie started to giggle. "I wish _I_ had time like that!"

Cream snickered, then both girls started to laugh.

The phone rang twice. A moment later, Vanilla entered Cream's room with the cordless in her hand. "Cream dear, it's for you."

"Thank you Mother." Cream held the phone close to her head. "Hello?"

"Hi Cream! It's Amy."

"Amy Rose! You're alright!" Cream jumped up and down.

Cheese clapped. "Chao chao!"

Frankie leaned forward. "What happened to her?"

"Amy, what did that awful scary cloud do to you?"

"Nothing. Sonic and Tails found me in some kind of time freeze under a dome. That's all."

Cream's mouth fell open. "Nothing?"

"If ain't nothing happened to her, than why were you so worried?" Frankie slipped off the bed.

"Who's that?"

Cream glanced at Frankie. "While you were missing, Mr. Sonic found a cat out in the woods and brought her to my house. Her name is Frankie. Would you like to talk to her?"

"Me?" Frankie pointed to herself.

"Sure, why not?" Amy said.

Cream handed the phone to Frankie.

"Um… Hello." Frankie held it with both hands.

"Hi. Frankie?"

"That's me."

"I've never heard your accent before. Where do you come from?"

"I come from the other side of the Great River, just north of the Chomp Swamp Zone." Frankie wished she knew how to better start a conversation with a very famous person. _I'm practically a nobody!_

"Cool." Amy wasn't a nobody. "It's just that Sonic and Tails are going to go on their next adventure and I needed a place to start looking."

"Looking?" Frankie looked to Cream, who shrugged. "What you looking for?"

"For Jack, silly. Oh, and I'll need you and Cream to come with me, if it's ok with Cream's mom."

Cream's face lit up, then she and Cheese ran out of the room.

Frankie was stunned. "Wow! You'd really do that for me? Ain't this 'scary black cloud of doom' still hanging over our heads?"

"Tails said he'd scanned the sky but didn't find anything of that guy's space ship. What do you say?"

She nodded. "You ain't even have ta' TRY to drag me along!"

Amy giggled. "Good. We leave as soon as you are rested. I'll be over soon."

"Good bye." Frankie hung up the phone. She walked slowly out of the bedroom, into the living room. "You guys ain't got that big of a house."

Cheese reappeared. "Chao. Chao chao."

Frankie stared at the flying Chao. "I've always thought you guys were cute."

"Chao?" He looked confused.

"Oh, what I meant to way was, I wish I had one of you. Where's Cream?"

"Chao chao." Cheese grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the kitchen.

Cream ran out of the kitchen. "Mother?" She looked around in the living room. "She's not here."

"Maybe she went outside?" Frankie looked around for the door.

Cream wondered outside. "Maybe." She went out. "Mother!" she called.

Frankie followed. "Do you see her?"

"No." Cream flew to the top of the house. "She's not on the other side of the house either!"

"Yo! Cream!"

Frankie turned towards the voice. "Amy Rose."

Amy was resting the iconic hammer on her shoulder. The other hand went up to her mouth. "Cream! What are you doing on the roof?"

"I'm looking for Mother! But I don't see her anywhere!" Cream flew down. "What do you think may have happened Amy?"

"Hmmm…" Amy rubbed her chin.

"Gone… Ain't even a foot print in the dirt."

"Huh?" Amy glanced at Frankie.

Frankie nodded. "Just like Jack."


	4. Chapter 3 Treasure Hunter

Treasure Hunter

Rouge took another look at the note she had found in her mail box, the one without a return address. She slid her finger under the flap as she casually pushed open the door to her apartment. It read:

_ Dear Rouge,_

_We know you like gems. We would like you to know that we have a lot of gems. We would also like you to know that we have your gems._

"WHAT!?" Rouge flew inside and kicked aside a certain painting, revealing a retina scanner and a number pad. She quickly entered the code as she gazed into the green light. A painting on the other wall clicked. Rouge tossed that one aside too and grabbed the key behind it. She kicked over a large chair, pulled up a piece of the floor and unlocked the hidden door. She didn't bother with the ladder, jumped down and literally erupted at the sight of the empty. "As soon as I find whoever did this, I'm going to rip them apart!" A strange new hole in the wall smelled like the sewers. Rouge flew back upstairs to read the rest of the note.

… _we have your gems. We would like you to know, that if you are not at the eastern end of Meadow Zone by 4:00 pm tonight, we will start to sell your gems to the world, one at a time._ The note was not signed.

"You will pay DEARLY if you try to sell my jewels! Not only is tampering with my mail illegal, tampering with my gems is dangerous!" Rouge checked the clock. "No time to invite the boys. Besides, this is personal."

* * *

"Huh?" Sonic stared at Tails's scanner, showing where the next diamond dome was.

When Tails had scanned Amy's dome, he'd figured out how to fix onto and locate more domes. Scan the globe for pockets of frozen time surrounded by a diamond shell.

"Yep." Tails pointed at the large lump of dirt. "That's it."

"This is too easy." Sonic began clearing dirt away.

"Too easy?" Tails sent the hand held scanner into hammer space. "What gives you that idea?"

"Come on!" Sonic cleared away another big area of dirt. "This versus under a spring?"

Tails began sweeping away the dirt with his hands. "Sorry. I'm not the one who can't swim. Who is this, anyway?"

Sonic looked inside. "I don't know. The dome is all blurry from the dirt."

"Not just the dirt, Sonic." Tails crouched down beside the base of the dome. "Look at this." He pointed to a device that looked like a computer or robot part. "This looks like an electrical field generator."

"Wow." Sonic scratched his head. "Imagine if I had spun into that thing just like before."

"I don't think I want to." Tails used a short pin to disable the device. The dome became transparent again. "Who is it?"

Sonic looked again. "Oh, great."

"Who?"

"None other than Jet the Hawk." He smiled. "I wonder what he'll say when he finds out who saved his tail feathers."

Tails cleared more dirt. "What would the black cloud want with Jet?"

"I guess we're about to find out." Sonic spun against the diamond. Nothing happened. Sonic stood up again. "Is it just me? Or did there more to this one than meets the eye?"

"Hmmm…" Tails took another look at the device. He placed his hands around it and wrenched it out of the ground. "There's another one!" He disabled the second mini generator.

The diamond dome vanished. "ACK!" Jet fell on his back and opened his eyes. "Well, if it _isn't_ my favorite racing rival and his sidekick."

"And if it _is_ the biggest bird brain I've ever met." Sonic extended his hand.

"I can get up by myself! Thank you very much!" Jet stood up and brushed himself off. He "_You_ don't have to bother, the dirt suits you both."

"Dude." Tails said in a flat voice. "We weren't the ones who were buried in it."

"So, Jet. How did a stellar thief like you manage to find yourself in a situation like this?" Sonic gestured to where the ring of dirt littered the grassy field.

Jet picked up his Type J air board. "You know, I'm not sure, really. I was out with the Rogues and some strange guy came up to me and said he'd pay me to fly through his slalom course. I feel like I only just finished it, but obviously not. Why do you ask?"

"This makes no sense." Tails closed his eyes and shook his head. "Early this morning, Amy Rose and Cream the Rabbit were kidnapped and taken to a space ship."

"I had to go Super Sonic to get up there and take out that beast's defenses," Sonic added. "Some weirdo speaking black cloud thing let me put a tracker on Amy, then we took Cream home."

"When we got back, I used the tracker on Amy to locate her. Then I scanned the dome we found her in so we could fine others, just like yours." Tails explained. "What did your strange guy look like?"

"Well he wasn't a talking black could, but I couldn't see his face." Jet pointed to Sonic. "Are you sure it was the cloud talking? Because that sounds like the perfect cloaking disguise for a kidnapper."

"Even if it was," Sonic motioned to the circle of dirt that Jet was still standing in. "Why would they just up and leave their hostages lying around under diamond domes?"

"You know what Snails? You have a bad habit of making things complicated!" Jet tossed his extreme gear board down, letting it float on its own.

"What did you call me?"

"Sonic! You don't even have a board!" Tails grabbed his hand. "Now isn't the time for this!"

"You know the drill," Jet stepped onto the sleek riding surface.

"Sonic?"

Sonic ignored him. "Spill it Jet. Are you asking for a race or directions?"

Jet smirked, but slightly confused. "Directions?"

"Yeah, the finish line is this way." Sonic grabbed Tails's hand back and the two of them ran away. "Tails?"

"Yeah?" Tails shouted over the sudden wind, refusing to let go of the scanner while still holding on as firmly as he could.

"I don't need a board to outrun Jet!" Sonic quickly glanced over his shoulder. "And only air heads like _him_ need bragging rights."

"What about you?" Tails propelled his tails to help keep balance.

"Me?" Sonic sped up. "I _know_ I'm the fastest. I don't need 'em!"

* * *

There were two men sitting on a log at the east edge on the meadow. Rouge swooped and landed in front of them, feet apart and hands on hips. Not a flirt was to be found on her face.

While the other was a mole. The human turned around and clapped his hands together. "Ah! Rouge is here! Welcome to the Meadow." There was a strange sock over his face, distorting his features.

"Where are my jewels?!"

He patted the log. "Right here. Oh, and we have something else for you." He snapped his fingers.

The mole pulled out a wooden box. "Sorry for the little break in, Miss, but we had to get your attention somehow. We figured this was the best way."

"You have my attention. Get off that stick of fire wood." When the mole jumped down, Rouge jumped high in the air and decimated the log with one kick. All her treasures rolled forth out of the gross rotting log.

"And a little something to add to your collection." The human opened the box. Inside was a bracelet.

"Another time, punk." Rouge started picking up her gems and sending them to hammerspace.

"Oh, but I insist!" He grabbed her hand and snapped in around her wrist.

The mole reached under his vest.

"Get away from me!" Rouge kicked her assaulter's boot, making him shout and hobble away in agony. She picked up the rest of her jewels and sent them to hammerspace. Suddenly the unwelcome bracelet on her right wrist dragged her arm to the ground. Rouge looked closer at it. One side of it was bigger than the other, and it was now smaller than her hand. "What is this?!"

"Oh, nothing." The human pulled a plastic bag out of his coat pocket. "Just a little something from our employers."

The mole snickered. "Begging your pardon, Madam. We didn't do this just for kicks."

A cloth bag came out of the plastic bag. The human came closer. "Without a trace… Leaving not a single foot print… Didn't even stop to say goodbye. And for a pile of shiny rocks?" He clucked his tong and brought the bag over Rouge's head.

A steel clad high heel ripped the bag open. "Listen _sir!_ I don't go out without a fight!"

"Ooh, a fighter!" He held out his right hand. "Spray, please."

The mole gave him an unmarked spray can. "Night, night Missy Prissy!"

Rouge held her nose with her free hand.

The human was standing farther back than before. "You've got to breath _sometime_."

Rough held her breath for a whole minute, still staring up at them.

The mole sighed. "Just let's get the second bag and be done with it."

"Are you kidding?" He kept his eyes fixed on hers. "She'll rip right through it like she did the last one. Just be patient. But let me see that bag anyway. I'll get it ready."

The mole handed him another cloth bag and he sprayed the inside of it with the contents of the can. "Hold still, little lady. And this won't hurt a bit."

Rouge took a quick breath. "I'll never go with you!"

Instantly, the bag blocked out the light and a sweet smell smoothed out the edges. Rouge fought and kicked, but the smell was making her legs feel like concrete and her eyes heavy. It was hard to know exactly when she fell asleep, for the world had already turned black.

* * *

There was never much wind on Angel Island, not even in the autumn. The lakes stayed flat and the streams kept calm, perfect for skipping rocks.

Perfect or not, Knuckles found himself still having trouble. He flung the flat stone towards the center of the lake, spinning like a Frisbee. The rock immediately landed first on a floating leaf and sank. Knuckles sighed. "Ok, this time for sure!" He picked up another rock.

"Mr. Knuckles!"

Knuckles turned around. "Cream? Amy?" He saw one other girl, but didn't recognize her. "How did you get up here?"

"Duh," Amy pointed to the bunny. "Cream flew us up here."

"We need your help!" the little cat with enormous ears folded her hands.

"What do you need help with?" He dropped the rock.

"Cream's mom went missing about an hour ago." Amy explained all that had happened that morning. "So when we couldn't find her, I took them to Tails's little lab and borrowed this." She produced a scanner from hammerspace. "We're looking for a huge crystal dome, big enough to fit someone inside."

"That thing led you here?" Knuckles studied the scanner.

Frankie nodded. "We didn't exactly all up and say, 'Hey! Let's all go an visit Emerald Island!' Didn't we?"

"Angel Island," he corrected. Knuckles turned on the device and started scanning. "Interesting..." He led them around the lake and threw some dense jungles before they reached the spot indicated by the scanner.

"Why would Tails's scanning device lead us to the Master Emerald, Amy?" Cream looked up at her.

"Chao." Cheese flew in circles around the shrine.

Knuckles shook the scanner and turned around. "What exactly did you say this thing was set to scan for?"

"A pocket of Chaos Control frozen time surrounded by a crystalline structure, I think." Amy scratched her head. "Tails is the one who programed it."

"Then that's why." Knuckles closed the scanner and handed it back to her. "That stupid thing detected the Master Emerald!"

"You mean this was some wild hog chase?!" Frankie kicked the base of the shrine. "There ain't nothing here!"

Knuckles bent down and examined the place Frankie had kicked. "Maybe not." He poked around some more. "Yep. It turns out that your scanner thingy did pick up something besides the Master Emerald. Have a look everyone."

They looked. The small hole showed them a cave, but it was covered by a thick crystal. Inside they could see what looked like a hand, but it was impossible to tell who was down there.

"How are we going to get them out?" Amy stood up. "The last time, Sonic spun to get me out."

"They ain't gona get themselves out, that's for sure." Frankie shrugged.

"Stand back!" Knuckles raised a fist, pounding on his fists into the diamond hard window.

Two small pieces fell in where Knuckles's spikes had impacted. The hand shot out of view. "Eah! Oh, my head…"

"Rouge?" Amy knelt next to the holes. "Rouge, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. That sounds like Amy Rose." Rouge appeared, her head just a couple of inches below the bottom on the crystal window. She looked up. "And Creamy pie and Knuckie too! It must be my lucky..."she paused. "Suffice it to say that today has been rather unusual. She waved to Knuckles. "Hi Knuckie, how have you been?"

"Things have been just great _without_ you around." Knuckles pulled back his fist again. "Hide."

Rouge jumped back from the rain of crystal shards. "Impressive," she reappeared. "Have you been working out?"

"I see that you've been getting into more and more trouble these days." Knuckles reached in to help her out of the hole. He pulled back when she backed away. "What was it this time?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Rouge stretched her arms and fluttered her wings. She jumped and flew out into fresh air.

Frankie gasped. "You're a bat!"

"And you're a cat with a bat's ears." Rouge reached down to shake the little girl's hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." She looked around. "Where's Shadow?"

"Where's Shadow?" Amy frowned. "How should we know?"

"Well, I figured that he'd be the one to rescue me from those kidnappers." Rouge batted her eyes at Knuckles. "It'd only be natural of him to do so."

"You were kidnapped?" Cream asked.

Knuckles sighed. "Rouge, take a look around where you are."

Rouge turned around and almost gasped. "You mean all this time I've been right under the Master Emerald?!"

"Yep!" Frankie put her hands behind her back, leaned forward and walked around her. "And you ain't had a clue."

"Aren't you cute."

"Miss Rouge, I don't think you've been gone all that long." Cream waved for her attention. "Because both Amy and I were kidnapped very early this morning and taken to a space ship so high, Mr. Sonic had to turn into Super Sonic to get up there and take out Mr. Scary Cloud's ship's weapons. Then he had to either rescue Amy or me, so he put a tracker on Amy so he could find her later and brought me home in time for lunch. Then Mr. Sonic and Tails went to Tails's lab so they could locate the tracker, and by the time they found Amy, it was hardly past noon. So you see, a lot of people have been kidnapped today but then found only a few hours later. I don't think there was time for Mr. Shadow to even know about your kidnapping." Cream folded her hands behind her back.

"Chao chao." Cheese nodded.

"Wow." Frankie turned to Cream. "That was cool."


	5. Chapter 4 The Best Robot Ever

The Best Robot Ever

Reflexes, flight, agility, hammer space, raw power, strength, and hearing, all abilities second to none.

Excellent, but what about the other attributes I asked you for?

We, uh, haven't thought of a way to capture them yet.

Then find a way! Our opponent will be finished with its final challenge soon.

We won't fail you.

Just need a little more time, that's all.

Hurry. We can't wait much longer. And the organic organisms are finding their friends much faster than expected. Do I get an explanation?

…

…

The trouble makers will be our priority.

Good. We can't afford to have ANY unexpected events interrupt the outcome. One more thing. It seems to me that your next to last capture was _another_ dud.

Simple miscalculation, Sir.

Simple miscalculation?! What were you thinking!? Now get of here! All of you! Before I decide to do something _really_ nasty...

Yes Sir!

Yes Sir!

Yes Sir!

* * *

"Doesn't he ever max out?!" Jet leaned forward even more, increasing speed.

Tails hung on to both of Sonic's hands, essentially riding on the wind behind him. "I've never seen him go this fast before! I think it's a new record!"

Jet had long since flattened out as much as he could on his extreme gear while still keeping his feet on the surface. "This isn't over! I'll be right back!" He slowed down a bit.

"Keep it up! Sonic!" Tails wished he could take out his radar gun, just to see how fast Sonic was running this time. But he'd need to let go to be able to hold the radar. This race had been relatively slow at first, but with Sonic now running probably faster than ever before (at least when he had to hold onto Tails too), he had to focus entirely on dodging anything that might be in the way. He couldn't safely run this fast and say something at the same time.

Jet slowly caught up, now laying down on his speeding hover board. "Look out below! Here I come!" He started to pass them, then appeared to stay still for a while while his face became increasingly agitated.

"What's wrong?!" Tails had to shout, but could barely hear Jet's response.

"I kit kit, to bah bah dry! Ah his till ought punning kit!"

"WHAT?!" Tails felt Sonic speed up some more.

Jet kept his eyes on his flight path. "I KICKED IT INTO OVERDRIVE AND HE'S STILL OUT RUNNING IT!"

Tails laughed. "I'D HADE TO FEEL HOW HOT THAT THING IS GETTING!"

"IT RUNS ON AIR! IT DOESN'T GET HOT!"

"BRACE YOURSELVES!" Sonic shouted.

"What?" Jet suddenly pulled up.

Tails tried to look, but then Sonic let go of him. "AHH! Sonic!" He quickly spun his tails around and gained some lift before hitting the ground. As he'd learned to do over the years, he curled up tightly to avoid bruises while he waited for the tumbling to subside. After he was going slow enough, Tails jumped and started to fly. They were in a city. "SONIC!" He caught sight of him, still spinning fast among some tall skinny apartments.

Suddenly, Sonic hit a garbage can, knocking it over and spilling its stuffings all over the side walk. The impact made Sonic start rolling more like a log than a spin. He rolled to the end of the street and smacked face first against a wall.

Tails flew in. "Sonic! Are you alright?" He grabbed Sonic's shoulder and pulled him away from the wall.

He was laughing. "Th… Tha… That was AWESOME!" Sonic laughed some more.

Jet hovered slowly by. He dropped the the ground and looked at the edge of his board. "A scratch! There is a SCRATCH! On MY board!" He glared down at Sonic and Tails. "What are you going to do about it?"

Sonic gave him a thumbs up. "Better luck next time."

Jet looked furious and was going to say something when his radio bleeped. He growled and lifted it to his beak. "What is it?!"

"Jet! Finally! Get up here, we've got to go." Wave's impeccable was unmistakable.

"I'll get there when I'm ready!" Jet rolled his eyes. He lowered the radio and sent it to hammerspace. "Next time, Hedgehog."

Sonic waved. "Until next time, Hawk."

He jumped on the hover board and few up to the approaching airship.

"Looks like we're near Eggman's place." Sonic turned to Tails. "Want to pay him a visit? Maybe have a nice civilized chat?"

"Sure." Tails stood up. "Why not? We'll get him to tell us what the big deal is."

Sonic jumped to a standing position. "Time to rock and roll, after we pick up that trash."

* * *

Wow! Did you see that?

See what?

Perceive this!

… Impressive.

That unit also appears to be on the boss man's hit list.

Oh, well in that case we should make it the next one on _our_ hit list.

* * *

The sign on the gate had read, 'KEEP OUT, NO TRESPASSING ' The sign on the door read, 'THAT MEANS YOU TOO, SONIC!' But Sonic wasn't in the mood to break the door down, so Tails just knocked.

_It sounds like I have unwanted guests_. Eggman pushed against the floor to turn the swivel chair around. "Oh." _Time to roll out the unwelcome mat_. He flicked a switch and continued with the designs of his newest creation.

For the next few peaceful minutes, cannon fire, crashing noises, and laser blasts from the computer speakers contributed the background noise. Eventually it died down, but soon the ruckus returned except it now came from the heavy titanium door, which just exploded.

Sonic leaped inside Eggman's study, pulling his cheeks apart and sticking his tong out at the robot.

Eggman jumped out of his chair before the robots' bullets shredded the upholstery. "STOP FIRING!"

The robots powered down and dropped their arms. Sonic leaned against a control panel and wiggled his fingers. "Hi Eggman."

"Sonic. Must you ALWAYS bring the sentry bots with you when you burst into my study!?" Eggman sat down again on the now slightly uncomfortable chair.

"Now just you hold on to your mustache. Tails is here too." Sonic pointed a thumb to the door, where Tails landed on the titanium skeleton of security.

"I've noticed."

Tails lifted his finger. "We were just wondering what you were working on, that's all."

Sonic appeared on the other side of Eggman's work table. "Something about three kidnappings in less than eight hours from each other, and then the kidnapped immediately showing up under huge diamond domes." He cocked his head. "Know anything about it?"

"Only what you just told me."

Tails came over and looked at the papers on the table. "Are you building _another_ super robot?"

"I hope it's not yet another Titan Metal Sonic." Sonic backed away.

"That is mine, if you please." Eggman snatched the blueprints Tails had picked up.

"Because if you are, that design is never going to work. All seven of the Chaos Emeralds couldn't even begin power an energy shield meant to withstand that much firepower. You'd need some way to either multiply your energy output or amplify the efficiency on your energy collector." Tails shrank from the look on the doctor's face. "Just saying."

Eggman put his hand under the table. Something clicked. "You two were just leaving, unless you want to stay for supper." A Metal Sonic standing in an alcove opened in a wall, but the robot's eyes were still dark.

Sonic put his hand on Tails's shoulder. "Well, thank you so much for your hospitality, Eggman. Just let us know next time you want to arrange a play date." The two of them conducted a speedy exit to the alleys of the city. The sky had turned a pleasing yellow-orange, and a few fluffy cloud bellies blushed a bright red. "What did you see on Eggman's table, Tails?"

"Whatever he's been doing, he's been at it for at least a couple of weeks. I just took one look at that table and thought, 'That is a mountain of paper if I ever saw one.' I don't think there's any way he could be behind these kidnappings and crystal domes, he'd have to have been at it constantly to get to that level of detail. That, and most of the stuff looked much more complicated than usual." Tails looked up in the sky.

"Hmmm…" Sonic thought for a moment. "I have a feeling that you and I should go to your place tonight and watch the news."

"_The news?_ Sonic, you hate the news. It's always like a day in review about our fight with Egg…" Tails stopped. "Then again, nothing too fancy has been happening the last few weeks."

"That's the spirit!" Sonic ruffed up Tails's hair. "We've got to see if there are more interesting things going on."

Tails ducked and shook his head. "Yeah, if Eggman isn't behind this, who is?"

* * *

"I ain't got another step!" Frankie flopped forward on the ground.

Cream sat beside her. "I wish Mr. Sonic were here, then we could ask for a ride home. I wish we could find Mother soon. I wish we were all home, right now."

"Chao." Cheese settled into Cream's lap and closed his eyes.

"Come on, you guys." Amy stopped and turned around. "It's only six o' clock. You can't be _that_ tired."

"I've got another one." Frankie held up one finger. "I wish Amy would give us a ride!"

Amy sighed. "I wish Sonic was here too. But we have to keep going, or we'll never get anywhere. It's too cold to sleep outside this time of year."

Cheese suddenly woke up and flew a short ways. "Chao! Chao! Chao!"

"What is it, Cheese?" Cream asked.

Frankie sat up. "Hey! Ain't we just got done talking about him?"

Amy looked down to her. "What is it?"

"That ain't a what." Frankie pointed the same direction Cheese was looking. "That's a who."

In the darkness, there was no doubt that the who was Sonic running towards them with Tails flying close behind.

Frankie's ear twitched. "He's slowing down."

"How did you know that?" Cream struggled to see them better.

"Sonic!" Amy waved and began run-walking towards them.

"Daddy was a bat," Frankie explained. "I look mostly like Mom, but from Dad I got these enormous ears and a bat's sonar. I use it to see the shape of whatever I point my nose at."

"That's very cool." Cream waved when Sonic, Tails, and Amy walked up to them.

"I heard some kids needed a ride?" Sonic scooped up one little girl in each arm. "Wow, I've been doing this a lot today."

Cream giggled, then held out her arms. "Come here, Cheese."

Cheese flew into Cream's arms and fell sleep again.

"Do you want me to give you lift, Amy?" Tails landed beside her.

"No." Amy almost glared at Sonic. "I'm not as pulped as they are. Just don't go so fast that I can't keep up."

"No problem, Amy." Sonic assured her.

"Let's go before it gets much colder than this." Amy shivered and set the pace for running to Cream's house.

After they had gotten home and Amy had tucked the little girls in bed and watched them fall asleep, she locked her door and followed Sonic and Tails. "So where are you guys going?"

Tails unlocked his own door. "We're getting a big bowel of popcorn and watching the news."

"Ugh." Amy stuck out her tong. "If I wanted to hear about the news, all I'd have to do was read my journal."

"If I had a journal," Sonic turned on the TV. "It would be the news." He started skipping through the channels with the remote.

Tails set up a DVD to record just in case they might miss anything. Amy helped herself to the kitchen until she had a big bowel of popcorn. All three of them sat down on the couch. At first it was just commercials, then something about the local traffic for those people who needed cars. After that came the weather predictions for the next week, meant for folks who cared about such things.

"Every time I sit down and watch the news," Sonic picked out another burnt piece. "Two things go through my head. One, tell me something I don't know, and two, will there ever be a day that I don't show up?"

Just then the TV said something about "this morning's heroic rescue" and showed a short shot of Sonic falling into the Hurricane with Cream in his arms. Then there were more commercials.

"I think I should watch the news more often." Amy stood up. "It might tell me where you're going next." She stood to go make more popcorn.

"I guess I'd better push the button, huh?" As soon as the commercials were over, Tails picked up the remote and set the disk recorder to begin recording.

The TV started talking about the morning's heroic events.

"You know what?" Sonic crossed his arms and pointed to the TV. "Instead of me being in the news all the time, there should be a small team of journalists trying to track my every move, then make it a show."

Tails laughed. "I'd like to see them try! I'll bet they'd call it 'Sonic Chasers' or something corny like that."

Amy carried in half a bowel of popcorn. "Tails, I'm afraid you've run out of dried corn."

"Oh no!" Tails put his hands on his cheeks. "We're in trouble now!"

The TV switched topics and started spouting theories about Dr. Eggman's recent inactivity. Amy sat beside Sonic reached for his hand.

"Tails," Sonic leaned forward to refill his bowel, casually evading the reach. "Why did _I_ have to sit in the middle?"

"I don't know." Tails shrugged. "I sat down first on this side because I always put the remote here, you wanted to sit next to me and Amy took the spot that was left."

"That's not true!" Amy protested.

"You are absolutely right!" Sonic motioned to the TV, clearly interrupting her. "None of these Egghead theories are true. Tails and I stopped by his place this afternoon, and he wasn't doing anything these people say he's been doing."

"That's not even what I meant and you know it!" Amy huffed. "So, what _has_ Eggman been doing?" she asked.

"We think he's been building a new kind of robot. Probably another titian." Sonic shrugged. "We'll see how much fun we have when he finally finishes it."

"Shhh…" Tails turned up the volume. "I think this is what we've been waiting for."

"_In any place on Mobius, kidnappers pose a danger to us all. Especially these days." A world map appears on the screen with little red and yellow dots on all the continents. "Over the course of the last four weeks, several kidnappings have occurred around the world. Every red dot marks one missing person. The yellow dots are the kidnapped who have been found, in all places, under a crystal dome." Cut to the faces of several random people…_

"Shadow?" Sonic asked. "Tails, pause this thing and let's see that again."

Tails switched the input to the disk and paused the recording. "Which one?"

Sonic jumped over the coffee table and pointed to the face two down and three over. "That's Shadow!"

Amy got up. "Look, and here's Jet!"

"Move, guys." Tails stood up and walked around the coffee table for a closer look.. "That guy." He put his finger on someone on the bottom row. "He looks familiar somehow. Did we know him?"

"I don't know. I can't see, his face is too small." Sonic ejected the disk from the recorder.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked.

Sonic went into Tail's computer room and plugged the disk in. "Tails, see if you can make that face bigger."

Tails sat down. He opened the recording, isolated the picture, and moved it to a new file. Then he opened it in a picture editing program. "First things first, make it bigger."

Amy leaned over Tails's shoulder. "Yuck. It's all pixilated now."

"That's what this button is for." Tails clicked on an icon and all the lines became smooth as the program tried to figure out the face. He turned around. "Recognize him yet? Anyone?"

Sonic studied the face, little more than basic shapes of colors. "If we once knew him, it had to be a long time ago."

Amy frowned at the picture. "I know a trick." She pulled another chair over. "Sit down, Sonic."

"Ok…" Sonic sat.

She made both of them face the picture. "Now close your eyes." They complied. "Imagine the other people you might have seen this person with. Who was he hanging out with? What were they doing?"

"Fighting." Sonic said. "There were a ton of us, and we were fighting for something."

Tails's hands were on his head. "Knuckles! I saw him with Knuckles."

"He's strong, too." Sonic nodded. "But he didn't like to…"

"It's Mighty!" Tails jumped up, eyes open.


	6. Chapter 5 Kidnapped

Kidnapped

"You mean the very same Mighty the Armadillo who was part of the Chaotix for a while?" Sonic asked. "I think I remember now. He was the strongest guy with the biggest heart."

Amy shuffled the face printouts. "You know, no matter how hard I try, I can't imagine what all these people have in common."

Tails enhanced the pictures one by one. "I don't recognize anyone besides Shadow, Cream's mom, Jet, and Mighty. I think all these people are still in those crystal domes, hidden around the globe."

"What makes you say that?" Amy studied the face of a young bat.

"Because we found and freed Jet the jock earlier today." Sonic set Mighty's portrait on the table. "Let's focus on what these people have in common. All of the yellow dots on that map turned out to be people already rescued before about four thirty. Rouge, Amy, and Cream. They're all… all what?"

Tails turned around as the last modified photo started printing. "Instead of that, let's figure out what's not in common with these people. They're not all guys or all girls."

"They don't live all on the same continent." Amy added. "We don't know them all."

"Not all kids, not all adults." Sonic leaned the chair back, balancing on the back two legs. "Don't speak the same language."

Tails held up Shadow's picture. "Not all of them are smiling."

"These are mug sketches! What did you expect?!"

"Not at all related." Amy studied the group picture again. "Weren't all kidnapped on the same day."

"None of them are as tired as I am." Tails yawned.

"That's it." Sonic stood up. "Let's call it a night." He picked up the fresh stack of pig pictures. "I'm going for a run."

Amy nodded, eyes half closed. "I think I'll spend the night at Cream's house."

"I'm going to bed." Tails stood up. "Goodnight."

"Yeah, sweet dreams, one and all." Sonic opened the door to the cool night air.

"Sonic," Amy stood and followed him outside. "Would you walk me Cream's house?"

"Sure." Sonic smirked. "Afraid of the dark?"

"Not at all," she yawned. "Do you know what Frankie told me?"

"Frankie?" Sonic wondered. "That little orange cat?"

Amy nodded. "She said she saw a bright yellow star last night, and that it was flashing and shooting all over the place." Amy looked up into the stars. "She made a wish on it, and that wish came true. I wonder if we…"

"A bright yellow star?" Sonic asked. "That flashed and was flying all over the place? Last night?"

"Yeah, why?" Amy looked at him.

Sonic sighed. "I hate to break it to you, Amy, but I think that was me."

Amy frowned. "How could it be you?"

"I was Super Sonic this morning from about two am to three, rescuing you. You know, before sunrise."

She lit up. "Oh, then that means I get to wish on you!"

Sonic stopped at the front door to Cream's house. "You can't."

"Why not?" Amy did not pull out the key.

"Because I'd have to go super again for you to do that."

Amy unlocked the door. "Wow, Sonic. You sure know how to ruin the moment."

"I try." He bowed. "And goodnight." Sonic ran away.

Amy sighed and went inside, locking the door behind her.

* * *

Sonic departed, making his way north west, thinking maybe some cool clean air would help clear his thoughts. He found an inactive volcano from the top of which he could see the moon's reflection against the distant sea, and the snow at the peak made for some soft and flowing landscapes. The wind blew shivers up Sonic's back as he thought just how perfect this place was. He quickly ran home and grabbed a scarf.

Back in the windless bowel of the volcano, Sonic tossed around the face photos out in a large circle. Without thinking much, he began to rearrange the pictures into groups. Critters of the cold night talked to each other over his activities. Even the moon peaked over the bowel's edge to see what he was this curious Mobian was up to. After a while, Sonic stood back to study the piles.

The first pile was Shadow, Amy, and Jet. Next to them was the pile with Mighty and a few others he didn't recognize. The third pile had just four pictures in it, Cream, Rouge, the young bat with kitty whiskers (Jack maybe?), and a blue bird he didn't know. The biggest pile was different. Vanilla's face sat right on the top of that stack, most of the others looked similar to one or another face in a pile before it. Sonic sighed.

Something touched his ankle. He looked down.

A shiny liquid like colored water… No it was acting more like… more like… like it was alive. Anyway it backed away from him about ten feet. Sonic kept his eyes on it while he itched his foot. It, whatever _it_ was, shrank from a puddle into a liquid orb, then split into two equally sized spheres. The two shiny balls became longer, then taller and thicker at the back end. They grew upwards and touched and made a large sphere on top of it all, also sprouting what looked like hands, fingers, and quills. After things had settled, Sonic stood looking at a mirror version of himself.

It opened its eyes, then colored itself Sonic blue.

"Nice touch." Sonic looked it up and down. "Who are you?"

It smiled. "A pity. I was hoping you'd be too thick headed to speak before fighting."

Sonic was surprised for a moment. It sounded just like him too. "I asked you a question."

"And I didn't." It shuffled past Sonic, admiring the snowy collage. "Nice pictures."

"Thanks." Sonic stared at the strange creature. He folded his arms. "If you don't have a name, than may I ask _what_ you are?"

"We have many names." It smiled at him. Creepy.

"We?"

It nodded. "Usually one for every populated planet we visit. We have yet to find a species capable of pronouncing what we call ourselves."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "You guys must really get around then."

"As do you, Sonic."

He snorted. "Lame."

It pointed to the pictures. "What were you doing here?"

"Thinking," Sonic responded. "And star gazing."

It crouched next to the largest pile. "I think you meant for this one," it picked a picture of a strange, female fox out from the bottom of the big stack and put it next to Shadow. "To go here."

Sonic looked down at the girl fox. "Maybe. I was just guessing on most of these."

"And this one…" He moved the face of a kangaroo from Mighty's pile to the same pile. "Belongs there."

"That looks right." Sonic nodded. "You're pretty good at this."

It smiled up at him a creepy, killer smile.

_Killer…_ Sonic didn't like that word. "You seem to know quite a bit about me, and how I think."

"Well, I _do_ happen to be an expert." It stood up.

"If I had to choose the first letter of your name, what do you think it would be?" Sonic crossed his arms.

The thing mirrored his pose. "How thick are you? Our name is unpronounceable to you."

Sonic nodded. "Have you ever been to this planet before?"

It thought for a while. "No, not personally. What I think you're trying to get at is buried in what you might call a time erased memory. You are a Chaos Being, are you not? You subconsciously remember some previous timelines, if you were particularly involved in them. In that case, we have never been to this planet before, it this timeline."

"So," Sonic shivered in the cold. "Why are you guys here?"

"I'm afraid that I can't answer that." It kicked the snow under the picture under Shadow's picture, causing the photo leap in the air and settle in its hands. "It'd be a shame, really." It ripped Shadow's picture in half, and in half again. "If the great Sonic the Hedgehog were to simply disappear." It looked at him and threw the Shadow confetti in his face.

Sonic cocked his head and blinked. Something in the back of his head was telling him,_ now was a good time to make yourself scarce_. He suddenly bolted up and over the edge of the volcano's bowel then down the south face. With trees and bushes constantly slapping him in the face, Sonic ducked his head and ran faster.

Suddenly something grabbed Sonic around the throat and threw him to the cold frosty ground. He thrashed around, thinking the thing had caught up and dragged him down. Sonic reached up and wrenched his attacker out of a scraggly bush only to realize he held only a fist full of his own scarf. Shredded but now free, the favored green scarf was sent to hammerspace.

Suddenly a shimmering wall leaped up out of the leaves. Sonic skid to a stop, waving his arms for balance. The wall extended around the mountain in both directions and was much too high to jump over this close. Something slammed into Sonic's back, knocking him into the wall, where the living goo clung to its hostage with acidic delight. Sonic struggled to look behind him.

The imitator brush the snow and leaves off its duplicate of Sonic's scarf. "I HATE trees!" it mumbled. It chuckled at Sonic. "I guess I'll need some practice, huh?"

"Skip the butter bath and spill it, spit wad!" Sonic felt like his skin touching the wall was on fire. "What do you want from me?"

"Speed," it said. "And lots of it."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, struggling to maintain as straight a face as possible.

"But of course, we can't allow you to go back to your friends with the story of this adventure." It stopped, leaning in close. "Where is your scarf?"

Sonic stared back at it.

"You must be cold without it. Here, take mine. It'll be much warmer."

It was right. The copied scarf also felt like acid on Sonic's skin. "I don't want it."

"Oh, but I insist!" It procured another duplicate scarf and wrapped it around its own neck. "And look! I've got one too. Don't worry about me, Sonic. I'm wearing it just you like it, the ends in the back." It tossed both ends over its shoulder. Then it made a big show of stretching its arms and yawning. "Sonic, don't you think it's kind of late to be out and about?"

"I've stayed up all night before."

"You stayed up all night last night." It clucked its tong. "Unhealthy. I think it's time for you to get some rest."

Sonic gerked his arm out of the goo to smack his impostor, the wall grew a tentacle which quickly wrapped around his wrist.

"Good night!" the creature wiggled his fingers in spite of almost getting attacked. "Have fun getting your brain scrambled!"

* * *

Tell me, where did you get this… thing?

It used to be our main trouble maker, until now.

Well, take it out of here. Keep it sleeping or give it a box to play in—I don't care. Just get it out of my perceptual range.

Yes sir!

Yes sir!

* * *

Tails tossed and turned all night, partially waking up every one or two hours. After the sun finally rose, the first thing Tails thought of were all those lost faces. He crawled out of bed, grabbed a bite to eat, and booted up one of the hand held scanners. He blinked at the display as soon as the dome finding program finished waking up. Tails quickly grabbed his shoes and ran outside..

The sight couldn't have been more welcome, but just as unwelcome. Tails flew to Cream's house, slipping on his shoes mid air. Landing, he rapidly knocked on the door. "Cream! Amy! Come and see! I found your mom, Cream!"

The three girls burst out of the house, Amy in the lead, hammer in hand. "I couldn't get that dumb oven to work anyway!"

Tails flew them back to his lab. There just outside his house in the clearing, where the airplane garage door slash runway hid under a thin layer of grass, stood a tall crystal dome with Vanilla the Rabbit standing inside. She was stooped with her hands forward, as though she'd been removing a sheet of cookies from the oven when she froze.

"Hooray!" Cream jumped up and clapped her hands.

"Chao!" Cheese zoomed forward ahead of everyone. "Chao chao chao chao!"

Frankie giggled. "That's right Cheese, we found her! When we get her out of there, we won't have to suffer through no more frozen instant breakfasts that ain't no good!"

"Hey! Blame the lack of instructions on the oven, not me!" Amy walked right up to the dome, raised a huge hammer, and gave it the biggest wallop she could muster from horrible breakfasts. _SMACK!_ Amy reeled and stumbled backwards as her hammer bounced off the diamond surface of the dome. "What?"

"What happened?" Tails flew above the dome.

"Nothing happened, and that's the problem!" Amy kicked in the dirt until she found a small stone. "I have an idea. Catch!" She tossed it to Tails. "Put it right in the middle." She turned to Cream.

Cream flapped her ears and scooped up Amy. "What are you planning to do?"

"I'm going to hit that rock with all I've got! With a bit of luck, all the force coming from my hammer will go through that tiny little rock and shatter that diamond." Amy lifted the hammer high. "That is, if it doesn't just crush the rock. Any time you're ready Cream."

"Don't hurt Mother!" Cream let go. Amy fell, hammer first, straight on target.

_CRASH!_

Frankie closed her eyes and covered her ears. "MAN! That has got to be the LOUDEST thing I hasn't heard in a while. _PLEASE_ tell me that was the dome breaking!"

Amy rolled past her, fire in her eyes and glaring at the hammer in her hands.

"It wasn't." Tails flew in and landed on the dome. "All that did was just crush the rock." He brushed the sand away, watching it fall onto a line in the grass.

Amy huffed. "That's double dumb! Not even a crack?!"

"Chao!" Cheese sniffled as though he was going to cry.

"Don't cry, Cheese." Cream dropped down and hugged him. "We'll think of something."

"Yo! Tails!" Frankie walked up to the unshattered dome. "Ain't there a way we could dig under this thing?"

Tails shook his head. "For every dome we've encountered, they've been built on a solid surface like stone, or as you found, the Master Emerald's shrine. I'm afraid that this one is built right on top of my airplane garage."

Amy made her hammer disappear. "Then why don't we just open your garage?"

He smacked his own forehead. "Why didn't I think of that?" Tails flew inside the lab, downstairs, and entered the code to launch one of the planes. Automatically the bay doors dropped down and retreated into the hanger bay. Tails flew up out of the opening hole.

"Dear me!" Vanilla wobbled and quickly walked off the hanger door. "How did I end up here?" Her dome, which had been sitting along the crack vanished.

"Mama!" Cream jumped into her mother's arms.

"Chao!" Cheese bounced on Vanilla's lap.

Frankie walked up to them. "We'll tell you anything we know, Madam Cream's Mom. But we ain't got a clue as to how you got there."

Tails pulled Amy aside. "I think we should just spend today demolishing domes. What do you say?"

"I say, BRING IT!" Amy swung her hammer around herself, bright orange stars appearing in its wake. "We'll show these phantom kidnappers who's boss!"

"I'm coming too!" Frankie hopped up to them. "Jack is bound to be in one of them domes, and I want to be the first thing he sees after all this time!"

"You're welcome to come." Tails gave him a thumbs up, just like Sonic. "Let's get Sonic to help us, then we'll be able to handle anything thrown at us!" Tails flicked open his cam com. "Tails to Sonic… Hello?"


	7. Chapter 6 Dome Busters

Dome Busters

"Relax, Amy. Sonic's cam com probably just ran out of power last night and he forgot to recharge it." Tails strapped himself into the pilot's seat of the Hurricane. "Besides, he's too fast to get caught."

"Ain't it too bad that Cream didn't come?" Frankie fumbled with her seat belt. "Crazy water snakes! How does this thing work?!"

Amy reached around Frankie's head to help her with the seat belt. "Cream and Vanilla have had enough adventure for a while. Even if he ran out of power, why hasn't Sonic come back yet?"

"You know Sonic, Amy." Tails pushed the button to close the bubble windshields. "He's always going on adventures. I wouldn't be surprised if he found some village that needed liberation from random Eggman robots. Quit worrying, he'll be fine."

Amy sat back in her seat as the bubble closed around their heads.

Frankie turned around. "I ain't never worry about Sonic. Why do you?"

Amy patted the little girl's shoulder. "You'll understand in a few years."

Tails turned on the intercom. "Are you ready for takeoff?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." Amy finished buckling her own seat belt.

"I get to see Jack! I get to see Jack!" Frankie bounced and wiggled in the seat. "I ain't never been more ready!"

"Good." Tails programmed the Hurricane's computer to scan for and lock onto domes. "First stop is quite west of here." He pushed the throttle in and pulled back on the joystick. The launch was quick and clean, and the trio could see the Rocky Range in a matter of minutes. They landed the speed plane in Cactus Patch Zone and inspected the dome they had found. Except for not being buried, this unfortunate rabbit's dome was similar to Jet's in that it had an electric field inside. Then Amy gave it a good whack and they all helped the rabbit get to his village where they were all happy to see him.

* * *

Somewhere in the southern jungles hid the next dome. There wasn't anywhere to land the plane, so they came as low as they could and Amy jumped. They'd meet at the closest beach. When Amy finally found the dome and busted it open, The sky blue iguana thanked her and helped her get to the ocean.

* * *

Even farther south and on the tip of the world's largest peninsula, they found another dome in the deep recesses of a tidal cave. By this time it was well into midday so they decided to eat lunch while waiting for the tide to go out. After all, whoever it was had been stuck frozen in time and wouldn't know the difference but only gratitude if their rescuers had eaten before rescuing.

* * *

Tails leaned over the edge of the cliff after they had picked up from lunch. "The water's down far enough. Let's go!"

The three of them dropped one by one into the ankle deep water. Frankie shuddered. "There ain't nothing I hate more than being wet."

"You'll get used to it." Amy shaded her eyes and looked inside. "Wow, it sure is dark in there."

"I wish I'd brought my flash light." Tails walked inside.

"I can see in the dark." Frankie stepped ahead. "Let me lead."

"Ok." Tails let her pass.

Frankie closed her eyes and hummed, using her sonar to guide them all safely around sinks holes and deposits of marine life. It was pitch black by the time they got to the end.

"I don't understand," Tails's voice said. "The scanner said that the dome was in this cave."

Frankie hummed a bit more. "This wall is thin."

"Here," Amy said. "Let me knock us a way through." She pulled out her hammer with a _swoosh!_

"AAHH!" Tails shouted. _SPLASH!_ "Amy!"

"Sorry about that. A little hard to see in here. Tell me where it's thinnest."

Frankie took a couple of steps back and hummed. An image of what lay before enclosed in her mind's eye. 3D images of Tails carefully climbing out of a deep puddle and Amy standing before a thin rock wall, hammer drawn and ready. "It's thinner at the top. Ain't nowhere else is thin enough to break through without some doing."

"Hammer in the hole." Amy swung her hammer high. _CRASH! RASH! ASH!_ A rain of pebbles fell through the hole Amy made.

"Took you long enough." The voice was very muddled, but coming from the hole.

"That voice!" Tails helped himself out of the sink hole. "That sounded like Shadow!"

"Shadow!" Frankie's world went dark until she started humming again.

Amy stood on tip toe, as though she were looking through the hole. "Shadow, is that you?"

"Of course it's me." Shadow sounded agitated, impatient. "Get me out of this accursed blast proof dome before the tide comes in again!"

"The tide won't come in for another few hours." Tails spun his tails around to get them rid of the water. "Wait a minute! If that wall was solid, how do you know when the tide is in?"

"Because that wall isn't solid. At midday and at midnight, this whole room floods. There are several small tunnels on the floor."

"How big?" Amy asked.

"I'm not sure, it's hard to tell..." there was a short moment of silence. "I'd say about the size of a large soccer ball or basketball."

"About the size of a basketball, huh?" Amy's fingers traced around the edge of one of the hammer's sides.

Even when they were all blind, Tails still made hand gestures when he talked. "Sounds like Frankie is the only one of us small enough to reach you, Shadow."

Frankie stopped humming. "Oh no! As if getting my feet wet weren't bad enough! There ain't no way you're gonna make crawl through that muddy hole!"

"Oh, GROW UP!" Shadow shouted from the tunnel. "I've been stuck under this bubble for two and a half weeks! Surely you could survive five minutes in a wet tunnel."

"How did you not starve?" Tails asked, perplexed.

Amy shrugged. "He's the Ultimate Lifeform."

"No way, no how!" Frankie crossed her arms and strutted up to the hole. "I hate getting wet!"

"Now where have we heard that one before?" Amy asked in a somewhat mocking voice.

Tails giggled.

"Besides, you'd need to come with me, Amy!" she pointed to where Amy's voice had come from. "You're the only one who could break open the dome."

"Not necessarily, Frankie." Shadow responded. "You're acting like a cat, and it's a well known fact that cats can fit through any hole that's big enough for their head. But, when you aren't speaking, I can feel the dome vibrating. This reminds me of someone I work with... So I guess you somehow have a bat's ability to use sonar?"

"How did you…?"

"If you have such an ability," he continued, "then it should be possible for you to break the dome by vibrating it with your sonar until it shatters. Think about how a singer can break a wine glass..."

Frankie looked into the small, dark, wet, scary hole and imagined herself going into it. She started to cry.

Shadow let out an audible sigh. "_Please_ tell me these cave walls are deceiving my ears!"

Amy splashed around until she found the crying child. "Frankie? Listen to me. We live in a world where danger could be on your front porch from the moment you first walk out that door. Then someone gets a few people together to help fight that danger for everyone else. That's how you get heroes. However, sometimes heroes are chosen for the job, or dragged into it by circumstances, kind of like you. We all have to learn to cope, like Cream has." Frankie could feel Amy kneel in front of her. "Now let me tell you a secret. I got kidnapped into being a hero."

Frankie sniffled. "You did?"

"Uh, hum. I used to be a gypsy, but one day a Metal Sonic kidnapped me and made me loose track of my family. I haven't seen or heard from them since."

"You must be brave." Frankie imagined never seeing her mother again. "I ain't never could have that kind of brave in me."

"Sure you do!" Amy said. "After all, you set off to find us all the way from across the Great River, by yourself, at night, in the cold, during the fall. You didn't even know _if_ you'd find us."

"I _did_ know!" Frankie stamped her foot, inadvertently splashing everyone around her. "I had a wish on a shooting star!"

"That shooting star turned out to be Super Sonic, Frankie," Tails explained.

"Naturally," Shadow said in a sarcastic voice.

"Hey!" Tails shouted. "Do you want to get out of there or not?"

"Ignore him." Amy gave Frankie a hug. "Now, are you going to defeat your fear? Or shall we send you home?"

"Ain't no way I'm going home until I've found Jack!" Frankie pushed Amy away, turned on her sonar, and leaped into the hole.

The tunnel was wetter than expected. Right away, Frankie found a place to stand, in twenty inches of yucky sea water. She guided herself to the hole in the other wall and began a twisting and turning decent until she saw sunlight against the next turn. Then it leveled out and she was in a tiny room, with an even smaller dome inside. The dome was so small, Shadow couldn't even stand up straight. There was a curious sky light, but it was covered by a shield of crystal that had many holes in it. Several other holes in the wall, like the one Frankie had just come out of, were obviously meant to let sea water in and out. The floor and walls where smooth, but slimmed with icky algae.

"Ick." Frankie frowned at her not so yellow shirt.

"You have no idea." The impatience on Shadow's scary face paled all else, even under the thin layer of algae growing on the diamond dome.

Frankie closed her eyes. Now the world was just her, this room, and a fragile crystal dome. She put her hand against it, her nose next to it, and hummed her normal hum. It vibrated, but not enough. She hummed a more intense note, and it vibrated more violently.

Shadow grunted, and the vague image of him putting his hands on the top of his head found its way into Frankie's mind.

She hummed the most aggressive tone she could manage. Frankie could feel the dome vibrating fiercely under her hand, but not enough to…

_CRASH!_

Frankie jumped back, staring.

Shadow was leaning forward, left glowing fist extended. He relaxed and straightened himself. "Nicely done. Let's go."

Frankie stooped and put her head next to her entry hole. "It's ok for you guys to go out the way we came in, me an' Shadow are going out the sky light."

"Ok," Tails's voice called. "See you on the surface!"

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow opened the sky light much wider.

Frankie grabbed his hand and they jumped out.

Tails and Amy appeared a couple minutes later. "The Hurricane is this way," Tails led them through the brush. "It's not far. By the way, Shadow. In all the other dome's we've busted, the person inside was locked in a time freeze. How come you weren't?"

"I have Chaos Control. The answer should be obvious."

"Right..." Tails nodded his head.

"Here we are!" Amy climbed into her seat and pulled out their picnic basket. "And Ultimate Lifeform or not, you must be starving!" She handed him an apple.

Shadow nodded and took the apple.

"Tell us, Shadow." Frankie sat cross-legged. "About how you found yourself in a dome."

"I was on my way to investigate the disappearance of a armadillo named…"

"Mighty?" Tails asked.

"Yes." Shadow looked south. "He helped me out once when I was down there. It wasn't much, but enough to remember his face when I saw him in the missing persons part of the paper. I got about this far, then _something_ came out of nowhere and knocked me out. I woke up in that cave I don't know how much later."

"So, this Mighty lives on the southern continent?" Amy stowed the basket after passing out snacks for everyone.

"Not exactly. He travels, but that is where he lived last I knew." Shadow shook his head, taking a bite of the apple.

"We have a print out of all the people who have gone missing since then." Tails gave a copy of the group picture to him. "We were trying to figure out what they had in common last night, but it got too late to stay up."

He studied the paper, then swallowed. "This is outdated." Shadow turned the paper around, his thumb right above his own face.

"Well, we _have_ been rescuing people all morning." Amy smiled. "It's TV. Honestly speaking, how much credit can you really give them when you make the news four to six times a week?"

"Ain't no way I would know." Frankie giggled, then pointed to the weird looking bat kid. "That's my brother, Jack."

"Nice." Shadow studied the pictures again. "I don't know, something about most of these people strikes me as… there's something similar about all of them, but I can't place it." He turned to Tails. "You obviously made some sort of device that tells you where the missing people are hidden under domes."

"Yeah, except it scans for the dome," Tails nodded. "Not the people."

"Same difference!" Amy looked at Shadow. "If you're going to ask to come with us, I'll tell you that the Hurricane only has three seats. You'd have to run below or ride on top."

"I can use Chaos Control to get us all there instantly, provided you have a Chaos Emerald with you." Shadow ate another bite.

"Sorry." Tails shook his head. "The last I knew, Sonic had them all. But he went Super so he could get up to a space ship that had kidnapped Amy and Cream. I think he sent them away again after that."

"They're probably hidden all over the world right now." Amy sighed.

Frankie scooted beside Amy. "There ain't nothing we can do about it?"

"Figures." Shadow looked around. "And to think I thought I felt one close by when I came out here. Hmmm…" He stood up and walked over to a huge bush. Pushing it aside, he came to an old mossy log. Shadow let go of the bush.

"Did you find anything?" Amy hopped up and went over. She looked over the bush. "Well, what do you know!"

Shadow held up his find. "A Chaos Emerald."


	8. Chapter 7 Shattered Globe

Shattered Globe

"Oh, my head…"

"Sit up slowly," Shadow offered the unfrozen armadillo a hand. "You've been in a time freeze for nearly three weeks."

Mighty opened his eyes. "Do I know you?"

"I'm Shadow. You gave me directions about a month ago." Shadow helped him sit up.

"You feeling ok?" Amy asked. "I hope I didn't hit you too hard."

"It _was_ an accident." Tails added.

"I'll be fine. After all, your little hammer doesn't come close to some of the beatings I've had." Mighty smiled at her. "Now, just need a couple of things. One, a minute to rest. Two," he turned to Shadow. "Which direction is my village from here?"

* * *

"Ah! Westside Island!" Tails shivered in the sudden, slight cold. "Forgot how windy it always was."

"So, this is where you grew up?" Amy walked ahead.

"Hometown or not," Frankie hugged herself and rubbed. "Either it's nipping cold out or my caller ain't Francine Nightflyer!"

Shadow shook his head. "That's just another side effect of teleporting to a new climate. You'll get used to it."

Tails pulled out his hand scanner and pointed. "That way to the next dome!"

"All right!" Frankie jumped ahead and leaped between the trees and out of sight.

"How far is it to the next dome?" Amy followed Tails at a civilized pace.

Tails checked the radar. "Not far at all…"

"EEAAHH!" Frankie came running back. "I found him! I saw it! I…"

"Calm down!" Amy grabbed her by the shoulders. "Tell us slowly. What did you find?"

Frankie blinked. "S… Sonic."

Amy's eyes widened. "Really?" She brushed passed and ran ahead.

"What's Faker gotten himself into this time?" Shadow sighed and followed.

Tails and Frankie caught up. They saw a dome alright, caught tight in the trees as though it had been there a while. Sonic was inside, wearing his favorite green scarf. The scarf itself was held in a wild frozen dance, as though caught on something.

"How are we going to get him out?" Tails ran up to the dome.

"How should I know? You're the geek! Figure something out!" Amy drew her hammer but quickly put it away..

"I have an idea. Stan back, Amy." Shadow readied his hands while Amy cleared. "Chaos, Blast!" A giant ball of bright yellow Chaos Energy materialized, then hurtled towards the dome. After a few sizzling seconds, hardly anything was left of the dense vegetation.

"AAAHHH!Shadow!" Amy swung her hammer back. "You scared me!"

"Amy!" Frankie jumped in front of her. "You ain't giving the poor guy a chance! He said the domes ain't gonna shatter with a little Blast, remember? Look, he even got them job started!"

Amy huffed and glared at Shadow. "I suppose so. But next time, _tell_ me before you aim a whole Chaos Blast at my Sonic, ok?"

"Those domes are tough," Shadow crossed his arms. "I blasted mine all day the first day, and you saw all the good it did."

"Goody!" Frankie clapped her hands. "Ain't I glad we're all still friends around here. Time to get to work!" She walked over to the door and hummed.

Shadow crouched. "That won't be necessary. Stand back." He jumped spinning, then rocketed into the side of the dome.

Sonic's scarf fell in his face. "Ahg!" He waved his arms around, trying to get rid of it.

Amy pulled up on the ratted end. "Got ya!"

"Oh, no." Sonic opened his eyes. "Do not tell me, those creeps kept up and kept up good."

"What happened to you last night?" Amy pointed to the torn place in her hand.

"Last night?" Sonic sat up and scratched his head. "Good, then that means I wasn't out for too long. So I was running along with those pictures, right? Well, then some creepy… I don't know what it was. It started to chase me, then my scarf got caught in a stupid tree. I don't remember if anything else happened after that."

"What happened to the pictures you took off with?" Tails asked.

"Well, I…" Sonic looked in his hand. "I guess they got lost."

"I guess the 'news' isn't so new after all, if you disappeared only last night and we didn't hear about it." Shadow thoughtfully studied his sheet of missing faces. "I wonder how many others are like you, kidnapped and we don't know about them."

"Now ain't that a scary thought." Frankie frowned.

"You know what I think we should do?" Sonic stood up. "I think all of us should get together and talk about all of this. Try to figure out who is being kidnapped and why."

Tails nodded. "I'll call Jet and tell him to meet us in Meadow Zone."

"Tell him to bring the gang." Sonic pointed to him.

"Don't worry about Mighty or Rouge, I'll make sure they're there." Shadow lifted the Chaos Emerald he found. "Chaos Control!"

Amy shivered in the gusty wind. "I guess that leaves us to fly home and get Cream and Vanilla on line. That way, Tails still has time to track down the Babylon Rogues in the Hurricane."

Frankie grabbed on Sonic's hand. "What about Jack?"

Sonic knelt in front of her. "We'll find him, don't worry."

* * *

"Sonic," Even though there was only a transparent window separating them, Tails had to use the cam coms to be heard by his friend sitting between the bubbles. "I don't know how the plane will act if you're still up there when I try to land."

Sonic gave him a thumbs up, the other hand being holding the camcom in his ear. The plane flew low enough and he jumped off.

The Hurricane landed nice and smooth. Tails punched his chest to quickly release the seat belt and hit the buttons to pop the windshield bubbles. He flew out and angled towards the lab.

Vanilla was knocking on the door. She turned when she heard Tails coming.

"Is everything alright ma'am?" Tails opened the door.

"No!" Vanilla seemed to have been crying. "Cream just disappeared again, but this time Cheese is gone too!"

He frowned. "Then we've got a problem." Tails flew inside and grabbed a computer chip off the desk. He came back out. "Miss Vanilla, would you please meet us in Meadow Zone in one hour? A whole bunch of us will be there, and we're going to sit down and talk this one out."

Vanilla nodded. "I'll be there." She turned to go.

Tails put a hand on her arm. "Better yet, I sent Amy and Frankie to your house. You should go with them." Then he flew back to the Hurricane. Sonic leaned against the blade like wing.

"Ready to go hunt down some naughty bird brains?" Sonic asked with a sly grin on his face.

"Just as soon as I get this map programmed into the computer." Tails jumped into the pilot's seat and plugged in the computer chip. "Get in Sonic! We're ready to go!"

* * *

Meadow Zone was crowded that night. All in all, there was Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Frankie, Vanilla, Mighty, Rouge, Shadow, Omega, Jet, Storm, Vector, and Charmy. Wave was nowhere to be found according to Storm and not even the Chaotix had a clue where Espio was. There was also several people who had been rescued, all but two of whom declined to having their names recorded in these records.

Everyone stood or meandered around in a sort of circle. Spread out in the middle was a new pile of sketches or pictures of the missing people, minus the ones standing in their midst, with descriptions neatly printed on the back. Everyone argued about everything and no one was getting anywhere.

"Tails," Sonic tapped him on the shoulder. "Could you give me a lift?"

"Sure," Tails jumped and flew.

Sonic grabbed his hand. "Everyone! May I have your attention, PLEASE!"

The crowd just kept on rambling.

Sonic jumped down next to Shadow. "Boy, with all the noise they're making, I'm surprised I can still hear myself think."

"I assume you're asking me to do something about it, Faker?" Shadow turned to him.

"Would you?" Sonic grinned. "Because that'd be just great, Shadow."

"You may want to cover your ears." Shadow pushed his way to the center of the picture pile. The din quieted some, but not completely. He held up his Chaos Emerald and shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "CHAOS, BLAST!" Everyone screamed, ducked, and covered their heads while Shadow's harmless light show of pure shimmering Chaos Energy showered down among the attendees. After the apparent non-danger was over, they all silently looked at Shadow. He crossed his arms and frowned. "You sound like a flock of squabbling critter scrub jays. Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce someone who does this properly." He waved Sonic on and stepped back.

Sonic gestured to the pictures around him. "Ideas, anyone?" He raised his hand.

A red and yellow teenage fox raised her hand.

Sonic saw and pointed to her. "Yes, ummm…"

"Fiona," she stepped out of the crowd. "I and my peers have been busting bubbles for anyone who pays up."

"That ain't fair!" Frankie stood up.

"Shut up, kid." Fiona glared at her. "I don't care how cute your face is, I'll gladly wipe it off for you."

"Please!" Sonic held up his hands. "If we can't keep the peace for an hour, we might as well be giving in to whoever's behind this."

Tails raised an eyebrow at Sonic.

Fiona nodded. "Which brings me to my next point. Hawk and I believe your Dr. Eggman is behind it all."

Nods and agreements spread throughout the crowd. Sonic shook his head. "Tails and I knocked on Egghead's door and asked him. It turns out he's been planning something big for about a month and hasn't had time to do all this."

"Can you really take Eggman's word?!" someone in back shouted.

Fiona turned around and dropped her jaw at Sonic. "Dr. Eggman is planning to attack us? And you _didn't_ do anything about it?!"

"Huh?" "What?" Murmurs rippled from person to person. A large blue Hawk flew above the rest of them. "If our, 'hero' isn't doing his job, why are we even listening to him!?" He dove in and landed both fists in Sonic's stomach.

Epic chaos erupted. Tails dropped down and kicked Predator Hawk off of Sonic, only for Fiona to catch one of his tails and swing him around. Tails went hurtling into Jet, who thought Charmy had just punched him in the back of his head. Storm didn't like this at all, so he picked a fight with Vanilla. Vector came to Vanilla's aid, just in time for her to trip over Rouge and fall down. Rouge was too busy fighting beside Shadow to get Knuckles and Amy to leave Fiona alone to do anything about Vanilla. Fiona herself had been following Hawk's example, until Sonic caught his breath and decided to spin. All Frankie found herself doing was screaming and running out from under everyone else, hurting everyone's ears until Mighty genteelly escorted her out of all those fists, wings, tails, feet, elbows, and knees.

Vanilla quickly made her way out of the fight, standing beside Omega.

"**This is so confusing.**" Omega just stood and watched the fight.

"Please see what you can do to stop them!" Vanilla hid behind a tree.

Omega lifted his arms. "**I will do my best.**" He fired several shots well above anyone's head. "**It did not work.**"

Suddenly, several booming noises echoed across Meadow Zone, shaking the ground and scaring everyone to silence. They looked up as the sky darkened, and an enormous airship blocked out the sun.

"We're under attack! And it's all Sonic's fault for not stopping it before!" Fiona shouted over the panic.

Tails shaded his eyes. "I don't see an Eggman symbol anywhere up there!"

Several shiny, new robots dropped down in a ring around the throng. They kept coming, layering up until one gigantic dome had formed so that not even the flying ones could escape.

"Whoa! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!" a lovely, well known voice shouted from above.

Fiona picked Tails up by the scruff of his neck and pointed his chin towards the source of laughter. "Looks like it was Eggman after all."


	9. Chapter 8 Mad Man

Mad Man

"Do something, Sonic!" Amy pleaded.

Sonic gritted his teeth. "I can't! I don't know what those guns are capable of. There's too many civilians around, f they start firing, either some or all of us could get hurt!"

"Oh, Sonic!" A momentary gap appeared in the robot cage to let the Eggmobile in. "I expected more from you!"

"Save it, Egghead!" Sonic pointed up to him. "In case you haven't noticed, this little crowd you've captured are some of the strongest, fastest, smartest, and bravest Mobius has to offer!"

"As a matter of fact, I _have_ noticed!" Eggman flew lower. "But I've also noticed that there are some, less than prime specimens in this bunch. What's the matter, rodent? Afraid of them getting hurt?"

"If anyone is to get hurt around here," Shadow stepped forward. "It's you, Doctor."

Omega lifted his arms. "**Commence extermination of inferior Eggman robots.**" He started destroying the cage from the bottom up.

Shadow turned around and cursed.

"Egad!" Eggman held out one finger in Omega's direction. "Attack!"

"No no no NO NO! Don't do that!" Sonic jumped out of the way of the first volley of strange, powerful laser fire. He knew all Eggman robots could be assumed to have been programmed to automatically target Sonic by default.

"Get down!" Vector shielded Vanilla from the wall they happened to be right next to.

"Mighty! I ain't never been more scared than when there was a water snack in my shower pipe!" Frankie hid behind him for protection.

Mighty curled up a little. "We'll get through this. Ague!" A laser beam hit his shell.

"Mighty old friend!" Charmy flew over to him, before getting caught himself. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He crashed into someone.

"HELP!"

"Someone save us!"

"EEAAHH!"

"Sonic!" Amy jumped into his arms.

Sonic tried to push her away. "Get away! They're aiming for me, mostly! Amy?" She was unconscious. Sonic set her down and tried to get away from most of the people. He suddenly got hit in the back, and the force of it was so strong, He fell face flat. Sonic had to focus on regaining composure before standing up again.

"STOP!" Eggman held up his hand.

Only Shadow and Sonic stood among the sleeping forms. Shadow carefully set Rouge on the ground. He growled, still staring at the ground. "What, have, you, done?"

"Oh, ho ho. Don't worry. No one has died here today." Eggman chuckled. "You didn't think I was that crewel, did you?"

Sonic crossed his spaghetti arms. "Did you_ really_ want us to answer that one?"

Eggman shook his head is resignation. "And to think, _that_ was only the stun setting. However," He flicked a control on his little dash board. "This setting," what was left of the robot cage changed barrels on their chests. "Was designed with you two's tough thistles in mind."

Shadow whipped out the Chaos Emerald. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Nothing happened.

"Nuh, huh, uhu! Not so fast!" Eggman shook a finger. "You see, I was unable to find the last Chaos Emerald, so I prepared for the worst. You see, I've set up a Chaos Energy dampening field, so that not even you, dear Shadow, have any hope of escape."

Shadow cursed.

That was the last thing either of them remembered of that moment.

* * *

The time is up, and our opponent has completed his part of the challenge.

Excellent. As have we. Gather the rest of the scouts together to make our battle field, including our prodigal runaway.

Yes sir! The first of those is already done, sir.

Marvelous. Now, about that_ thing_ in the play room…

Shall we destroy it? Sir?

There's no need for that. Send it back to our opponent.

Um…

Um, what? Is there something wrong with it?

No! Of course not! It's just that, ummm…

It seems to be the strongest and most dangerous of them all, now that we've had a closer look at it.

Yeah, both physically and (with the proper training and or stimulation) mentally. I really think you should check it out sir. The numbers at least!

Hmmm… Sounds interesting. Too bad it won't still be here by the time I get around to visiting it…

Understood sir!

What?

We will get rid of it now sir! Come on, let's go!

But…

Go!

* * *

Shadow woke up in a dark box of a metal room. He looked around, noting everyone who had been at Meadow Zone. "And I thought waking up in that accursed dome was bad." He along the nice neat, little rows of unconscious people. Biggest to smallest in one direction, shortest to tallest in the other. Also, everyone who had been still missing before, was now here. _Wave is here, Cream, Cheese, and that must be the cat's brother_. Shadow walked to the close corner of the tiny room. He walked back to his own spot, passing a strange looking puddle. He squatted down and looked at it. "What have we here?"

The puddle moved, by itself.

Shadow stood back.

The shiny silver liquie molded itself into a distinct shape and stood up. Sonic turned around, mouth open. "I... was hoping to be the first one awake."

Shadow stood up. "Faker. Where is the real Sonic?"

It closed its mouth and shook its head. "I have no clue."

There was a noise. A metal grate covering an air vent popped out of its place and got caught by another transforming silver blob. The thing with the grate made itself identical to Cream.

The fake Sonic walked over to her, obviously puzzled. "Why did you have to…"

The fake Cream pointed to the hole near the ceiling.

Sonic fell out of the air vent. He landed on his hands and knees.

A fake Storm squeezed out after him.

"Because we needed to take this back, and we still need you, scout." The fake Cream's arm stretched as she put the grate back in its place.

"Surely you're thoroughly repulsed by these concrete units." The fake Storm walked past the fake Sonic and put his hand on Shadow's shoulder. "You're not one of us." He turned and pointed to the fake Sonic. "Why did you let one of these see us?!"

"It's not my fault!" The fake Sonic threw up its hands. "I guess I got too comfortable with this one's abilities and endurance." He kicked the real Sonic. "There's also a certain aspect of its personality that's hard to ignore. It likes to overestimate itself."

The fake Cream sighed. "That's the problem with not sharing. You can become consumed by a unit's thoughts and personality so much so that you eventually forget you are not them. Come on, let's get out of here." She stretched up again and melted through the holes in the grate.

The fake Storm patted the fake Sonic on the back. "You feel too solid. Want a lift?"

"Thanks." The two followed the fake Cream out through the air vent.

Alone again with the soft breathing, Shadow walked over to the real Sonic. "Any idea what that was all about?"

Sonic mumbled to himself. He still hadn't stood up yet. "…everything seems real enough, but they've been able to fake that before, just like this… to be better to be sure."

"What was that?" Shadow furrowed his brow.

Sonic raised a fist and pounded the floor as hard as her could. "AHH!" He sat up and inspected his hand. "That hurts." He smiled. "Wait a second..." he began counting on his fingers.

"As I'd imagine." Shadow glanced down down. "You put more than a dent in the floor."

Sonic stood up, shaking a bit. "How do I know that _you're_ not one of them?"

Shadow was confused. "Who?"

"Sorry." Sonic decked Shadow with his left fist.

Shadow sat up quickly and felt his face. A tiny speck of dark red came back on his white glove. He looked at Sonic and growled.

"Shadow, it really is you!" Sonic smiled and sank to the floor, somehow exhausted. He crossed his arms under his chin. "Please forgive me."

Shadow stood up. "Only if you explain yourself."

Sonic sighed. "Call them the M."

Shadow held out his hands in confusion.

"It's complicated." Sonic sat up against the corner. "Don't ask me to explain all this, just that what they call themselves is much too hard for us to pronounce. Believe me, I tried."

Shadow sat down beside Sonic. "What happened to you over the last four hours? Were we duped into thinking that an M was you?"

"Probably." Sonic nodded. "And they had me as prisoner. Only four hours? It felt like four days." He flicked out his fingers one at a time, mumbling and shaking his head.

"I don't know how long we all were out," he waved to all the other sleeping figures in the room. "But _we_ were freeing other domes with _you_ after we rescued _you_ from a dome."

Sonic scratched his head. "That would make it around… around six in the morning the day after Tails, Amy, and I were at Tails's lab with the pictures."

Shadow shook his head. "Then I think you were with them much longer, but not four days. I was rescued in the early afternoon, we found you… your impostor a while later."

"Oh," Sonic rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I think I was starting to go crazy. Everything was soft, and if I hit anything hard enough, it liquefied. And they wouldn't let me sleep." He yawned again. "It was light and dark, and they just kept coming, attacking me like it was some game. It felt like an eternity." He closed his eyes. "And they kept trying to trick me into thinking I had only five fingers..." he whispered in a sleepy tone.

"That's... odd." Shadow spread his own hands in front of him.

A bright light opened up as though the far wall of the enclosure had been pulled aside. Silhouettes of several strange bots came in and stepped over the sleeping Mobians. They pointed their arm guns at Sonic and shadow.

"Sonic?" Shadow kept very still.

He reopened his eyes. "Robots? Come on! Wait a split second." Sonic squinted. "I've never seen this kind before…"

"They're new, and they have a special stun setting just for us," Shadow explained.

Eggman walked in, looking very pleased with himself. "Well, if it _isn't_ my two favorite hedgehogs! And just the two I was looking for, too."

"Dr. Eggman, whatever it is you want, I'm not up to it." Sonic put a hand up and shook his head.

"Sorry!" Eggman snapped his fingers. "I wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer anyway."

Two robots each picked up Sonic and Shadow by arms and legs. All the others kept their lasers pointed at them. The little procession left the captive room behind and walked slowly down several corridors.

Shadow decided he didn't want to play weak any longer. He pulled his arms apart, ripping the arms off the robot behind him. At the same time he activated the flames on his hover skates, melting the hands of the other robot holding his legs. Eggman turned his head to look over his shoulder. Shadow went into a spin and took out what was left of his two escorts. He glanced at Sonic.

Sonic was spinning on the floor with two scrap heaps on either side. He stood up, rolled his eyes and fell against the wall. A bot behind him fired its laser and missed. It fired again but Sonic ducked and kicked it. "Shadow!"

Shadow swung around and took the head off the bot behind him, not bothering to look. He got stung in his back. "Hag!" Shadow saw the floor coming towards him, but his hands didn't respond to catch his fall.

"Ahh!" Apparently, Sonic had been hit too.

Shadow couldn't move, not even to turn his head. A shaded silhouette of Eggman approached Shadow from behind. The bots had stopped firing.

"Enjoying paralysis, Shadow?"

Shadow blinked and found that he could still move his face. "Why aren't you asking Sonic?"

"He went unconscious for some reason, I don't know why." The arm of Eggman's shadow went up and stroked his mustache. Then it all shifted, as though he was standing sideways. "He seemed perfectly fine last night."

_Then it's a good thing the… the M duplicate of Sonic isn't still here,_ Shadow thought. _That also means Sonic himself wasn't kidding when he said he was tired._ "What do you plan on doing with us, Doctor?"

Eggman signaled for the robots to begin carrying the incapacitated hedgehogs again. "None of this has anything to do with you, personally Shadow. My latest creation runs on so much Chaos Energy, even with all of them in one place it would drain the Chaos Emeralds long before I would be done using them."

Shadow felt himself being flipped over, belly up. As he was picked up, his head went back into a rather uncomfortable position.

"And I don't_ really_ want to drain the Chaos Emeralds. What would be the point?" Eggman strutted into view, walking behind. Sonic was still nowhere to be seen.

"You're going to force us to turn Super to power your toy?" Shadow asked.

Eggman chuckled.

"I hope you have _plenty_ of power rings."

"As a matter of fact…" Eggman walked out of view. The robots stopped, and turned Shadow around. The doctor had opened a vault door. "I do."

The vault was filled floor to ceiling with rings in perfect stacks. Thousands, millions maybe, but enough to keep both Sonic and Shadow super for a month.


	10. Chapter 9 Monster Machine

Monster Machine

Eggman shut the panel of this robot's battery pack. "You!" He pointed to Orbot. "What is our ETA?"

"**Our estimated time of arrival is twelve minutes, Boss.**" Orbot folded his hands, hopping along with Eggman.

"Good." Eggman started walking towards the bridge of the ship, from where he would be able to see and control everything. "They said not to be early. That sometimes their structures take a little while to harden."

The robot followed at a distance. "**What of the other prisoners, Boss?**"

"They are my insurance, in case those two break free and decide to be heroes.

"**A wise precaution sir! Sonic and Shadow are both notorious for sabotaging your greatest plans at a moment's notice!**" he pointed out. "**Sonic is especially good at rescuing his friends as well as fowling your evil plots.**"

"Well he won't be able to ruin this one. Get out of my way! Don't you have a job to do?!" Eggman's face turned slightly pink as he stared the robot down.

"**Always,**" Orbot nodded. "**I exist to serve the Eggman Empire!**" he folded himself into a ball and rolled away. "**(No matter how scrambled Eggman himself may be.)**"

Eggman grumbled continued on to the bridge. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother..."

* * *

"Where's the door? I thought you were supposed to have some kind of ninja power or something!" Fiona planted her hands on her hips, tapping her impatient toe.

"If you'd be quiet," Espio glared, hands spread on one of the metal walls, "I'd find it much sooner." He went back to tapping.

"GRRR! This is INSANE!" Fiona raised her arms and stomped back into the midst of the crowd.

"No more insane than stealing our extreme gear!" Jet crossed his arms. He and his gang had reserved a corner for themselves.

"You guys all got good sets of wings, but ain't none of you can fly without the likes of a computerized plank?" Jack gave them a double thumbs down. "Lame-o! Blame-o! Kablam-o!"

"Watch it, you little punk!" Waved made a fist with one hand.

"Ah, leave him alone!" Frankie waved her own fist, pulling Jack away with her. "Come on, we ain't need nothing to do with _them._"

They walked passed Rouge, who was attempting to fix Omega's broken fuse. Frustrated she kicked Omega's foot. "Personally, I don't get how Shadow ever gets you to work! Oh, hi kids."

"Howdy." Jack saluted her. "Wish I could really fly with my wings like you can yours. I ain't big enough to do but jump and glide."

"Oh, it's nothing, really." Rouge fluttered to tiptoe, but still couldn't see over most of the heads. "Do me a favor, go find that little geek Tails and bring him over here."

"Right away, Rouge!" Frankie pulled away.

Tails counted on his fingers to Knuckles. "…even Cream and Cheese are here. And everyone else who they said was missing! Don't you find it the slightest bit odd that neither Sonic or Shadow are here?"

Knuckles shrugged, frowning. "What's so special about them?"

"That's my point!" Tails waved his hands in Knuckles's face.

"Tails?" Frankie stood between them.

"Yeah?" Tails turned to the twins.

"Madame de GUN ain't never gonna get that robot to work." Jack thumbed over his shoulder.

Tails looked between people. Rouge stood with her feet apart, wings spread, and fists clenching a tool each as if she was prepared to tear Omega to pieces if he didn't cooperate. "I'll go see what I can do." He hopped and flew over most of the crowd.

Jack looked around. "Wow." He pointed to Cream, Cheese, and Vanilla all sitting together. "What's that?"

"Those are rabbits." Knuckles itched one of the spikes on his left hand. "Cream and her mother Vanilla."

"No no no." Jack shook his head. "I ain't blabbing about the bunnies. What's that blue bulbous bouncing thing in Cream's arms?"

"Don't you like to alliterate?" Knuckles crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Cheese is a chao. There are a number of chao gardens around that we know of, in case you'd ever want to visit one."

"Tanks." Jack saluted Knuckles.

Frankie giggled. "Thanks, Mr. Knuckles, man!"

"**PROXIMITY ALERT! INFERIOR EGGMAN ROBOTS DETECTED IN IMMEDIATE VICINITY SENSORS INDICATE CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT!**"

"AHHH!" someone yelled. "IT'S GOING TO KILL US ALL!"

"NO HE'S NOT!" Rouge jumped up to make herself heard. "Calm down everyone!" She pointed to Omega. "And that means you too, bolt bucket!"

Tails grinned. "I knew it!"

Rouge set her feet on the floor. "Omega, be a nice gent and tell us which wall of this bow is our way out."

"**Processing.**" Omega's head spun around, stopping toward the wall opposite Espio. "**Situation diagnostic results indicate that wall possessing highest percentage success.**"

"Everyone!" Amy summoned her hammer and pointed it at the wall. "Attack!"

Eight people jammed against the wall, including Mighty, Knuckles, Omega and Vector. Everyone else either stepped back or pounded on the wall from a distance, like how Amy threw her hammer.

The wall just to the left of them suddenly opened up, with Eggman right behind it.

"**EGGMAN ALERT! COMMENCE…**"

Eggman _clicked_ remote, and Omega shut down. "Greetings, everyone."

"Oh, come on!" Tails threw down a wrench. "I just got him working again!"

"Don't bother me with your trivial temper tantrums, fox boy." Eggman replaced the remote in hammer space. "I have come to inform you all that we have arrived."

"Where are Sonic and Shadow?!" Amy slung her hammer at Eggman's face, but it bounced back off of mid air. "Huh?"

Dr. Eggman chuckled and flicked the force field, causing it to sputter and sparkle. "Amy, my dear, I did foresee your little hammer fit. Please don't act surprised. Anyway, as I was saying…"

"What do you want with us?" Fiona crossed her arms and twitched her tail.

"Where are we?" Jet demanded. "Let us go!"

"Or else what?" Eggman chuckled. "You'll tear through the place on your hover boards? I think not!"

"You didn't answer _my_ question!" Fiona took a step forward. "What are you going to do with us?"

"Really, if you think I feel the slightest bit threatened by you…" Eggman folded his hands behind his back.

"No, of course not!" Hawk sneered. "He's hiding behind a force field!"

"Everyone, please!" Cream flew up above everyone. "All this fighting has taken up almost a full page of script! Our dear author would rather not have to spend any more time on this argument, and would please like to get on with the story!"

"Chao!" Cheese nodded.

"Thank you, Cream." Eggman nodded to her. "As I was saying before, we have arrived. 'Where?' you might ask? Let me explain. A month ago, a race of aliens encountered one of my satellites in orbit and used it to send me a message. It took me a while to decode it, but in short they wanted to add our beloved Mobius to their empire. As master of the Eggman Empire and on behalf of Mobians everywhere, I told them to get lost."

Tails and Amy rolled their eyes. Others just glared.

"We came to a compromise in the form of a winner takes all battle tournament! The best robot I could build vs. the best form they could shape shift into!" Eggman held up his arms, but then brought them down when Wave raised her hand. "Yes?"

Wave put her hands on her hips. "So let me get this straight. You gambled the entire world so you could play a game with some domination intent shape shifting aliens?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?"

"Would you rather I simply roll out the red carpet?!" Eggman frowned at her.

"Dr. Eggman, if I may ask you a question." Vanilla walked forward. "What ever became of Sonic and Shadow since last night?"

Eggman smiled. "_Super_ Sonic and _Super_ Shadow are gladly helping me by providing much more power than the Chaos Emeralds could ever produce by themselves. Thank you for pointing that little detail out in my blueprints, Tails. It was very helpful."

Everyone looked at Tails. "_Me_?" He pointed to himself. "I thought… that…"

"Although it was unnecessary. I would've eventually found the design flaw myself. But were it not for you, I don't think I would have had time to modify my energy collection matrix." Eggman over his prisoners. "Any more questions? No? Then I must be off." He turned around.

Amy walked up to the force field to retrieve her hammer. "Now, what?"

There was a loud noise, then the roof peeled away and became sky. The walls slowly withered down until nothing was left of the box except the hum of force fields, and even that suddenly quieted.

All around them there was a glorious battle field. Slight dips and mounds in a grassy expanse so believable, you'd swear you were back on Mobius. If only it weren't for the faint stars poking through the thin layer of sky blue overhead, and lack of trees or bushes. There was even a slight breeze.

"How did he get the wind to blow through the force field?" Knuckles asked.

"Is it even still up?" Storm stepped ahead and reached out.

"Don't!" Wave pulled his arm down. "You don't know what that energy will do to you!"

"Oh, let him." Jet crossed his arms. "Then he'll never ask such a stupid question again."

"Only one safe way to find out." Amy threw her hammer away as far as she could. Nothing stopped or diverted her throw.

Everyone spread out a little, curious, but in mind that there would soon be a dangerous battle on the very turf they stood on.

"I thought he said he _wasn't_ going to let us out," Fiona wondered.

"Hey look everyone! The lake is moving!" Charmy flew above it, pointing.

"Yo! Charmy! Get away from there!" Vector shouted, reaching for him.

Charmy flew off, and just in time too. As he flew out of the way, a great column of shiny water blasted from the lake's surface. "AAHH!" Charmy screamed and dodged. "That thing almost killed me!"

"Look!" Rouge pointed to a blob of shiny water, standing by the lake.

The silver blob shaped itself into the form of a girl, hedgehog, and pink with a red dress. The fake Amy looked at them and frowned. "What do we have here?"

Amy herself stepped forward, with her hammer in hand. "I could ask you the same."

"You're not even supposed to be here." It deepened its frown. "He wasn't supposed to bring help!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

It waved to everyone. "None of you were meant to be here! This was not part of our agreement!" It walked through the crowd. "Out of my way! I have a self-centered, double crossing, master mind wanna-be unit to discuss this with."

The ground rumbled, then split open near where the holding cell had once been. A behemoth of a robot erupted from the hole as soil rained down its sides. "BWAH! HA! HA! HA!" Eggman's voice boomed from some hidden loud speaker as the toes of this gigantic machine broke the surface. "YOU PUNY ALIENS DON'T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST EGG-NIGHTMARE!"

"Not good…" someone said.

The robot's hand opened up, and a white laser poured forth upon them.

"Lovely," the fake Amy shook her head.


	11. Chapter 10 Mauler

Mauler

"Sonic! You've got to wake up!" Super Shadow once again tried to move anything more than his face, but the effects of Eggman's paralyzing energy bolt were holding firm. Even if he could move, Shadow would still have to deal with the restraints Eggman had designed to hold a super powered Chaos entity like himself, in place.

Super Sonic and Super Shadow were strapped in as the eyes of Egg-Nightmare. From way up here, Shadow could watch as the robot ruthlessly attacked the helpless citizens of Mobius, probably thinking they were just more of the M creatures Sonic described. The heroes were doing their best to protect them, but Eggman had taken the lasers on this robot to a whole new level.

* * *

"Spread out, you ignorant native units!" The Amy shaped thing started to chase groups of four or more.

Amy hit it with her hammer. "What do you think you are doing!?"

It fell face flat, but quickly pealed itself back to a stand. "It won't be able to hit thirty targets at once when it only has two very powerful lasers." A hammer appeared in its hand just in time to deflect Amy's pounding.

Amy hit her duplicate's hammer out of its hands, sending it flying through the air. The hammer hit the ground and spread out into a puddle of grass.

_THWUMPBOOM!_ A rolling log of turf knocked Amy and the shape shifter off their feet.

Amy stood up first. "What was that?!" She turned around.

"The machine unit," it said behind her. "It must be heavy enough to…"

_THUMBOOM!_ Egg-Nightmare took another step. A shock wave like ripple whipped the land up and down, knocking everyone down.

"It had better not walk off the ship." It melted down into the flowing grass.

"The ship?" Amy looked towards the robot.

* * *

"This is not good." Shadow traced the paths of the ripples with his eyes. Every time the robot took a step, the entire field rippled like a lake when you threw a stone in the middle of it.

The robot's other foot lifted and crashed down... down... down... The box around Shadow began to tilt. He tried to move again. "Grrr… SONIC!"

Sonic's ear twitched.

"WAKE UP, FAKER! LOOK AROUND!"

"OUCH!" Sonic winced and glared at Shadow. "Shut up! I'm right beside you."

"Look around! Where are you?!"

Sonic looked, and saw all that was happening through the window. "Let's see, this ship is sinking fast and Egghead had promoted us both to captains. Right?"

"Close enough." Shadow still couldn't move. "Any bright ideas?"

Sonic glanced at Shadow. "We've both been turned Super?"

"I'd have thought you'd have felt that."

"Silly you, then."

"Silly me!?"

"Chaos Control!" Super Sonic vanished for an instant, then reappeared facing Shadow.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow teleported himself out of the restraints, flying in the middle of the compartment. "I don't understand. The doctor said he set up a Chaos dampening field."

"Chaos dampening field?" Sonic laughed. "Really, Shadow. Could we even _be_ Super if all the Chaos Energy had been dampened?"

Shadow smacked his head. "We have to stop this thing from falling through!"

"Why? Where are we?" Sonic blasted a hole in one of the robot's eyes.

"Five thousand feet above Mobius." As Shadow flew outside.

By now, the robot had sunk down up to its knees, tilting to one side. The ground firmed up around it, stopping the fall. Down below, Tails led everyone in an attack.

"Alright!" Sonic charged up an energy sphere and threw it into the center of the robot's chest.

The orb of raw power melted through the unprotected robot's chest, causing the entire thing to blow up and disintegrate.

"Let's go, Shadow!" Sonic just let himself drop. "We've got us some aliens to wrangle!"

"Sonic!" Tails ran up to them. "I guess that answers what Eggman did with you guys."

"Yep! And he failed, again." Sonic put his hands behind his head, still hovering several inches above the ground.

"Our opponent failed?"

They turned to face the voice. It was an M Mighty. "Then that means we win by default! Your planet is now ours!"

"Not so fast!" Shadow flew up to it. "You still have ME to contend with!"

"And just who do you think you are? Wait!" the fake Mighty closed his eyes and held up a finger. "You think you're the Ultimate Lifeform, the Protector of Mobius if we're not mistaken."

Sonic put his arm around an annoyed Shadow. "You can make that two of us!"

It clapped its hand a couple times. Several duplicates each of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Jet, Wave, Storm, Mighty, Jack, Frankie, Hawk, Fiona, Mighty, and a few others rose out of the grass. The it Sonic in front cocked his head.

Sonic rose a few inches. "Nice normal versions of every one, but did you ever catch me while I was Super?" He flew forward and blasted through them.

Like lightning, one of the Sonic copies near the back reached up to grab Sonic, but its arm suddenly melted and bent back into the ground.

"Something wrong?" Super Sonic smirked.

Refusing to answer, the unfortunate M continued to melt and sink into the grass.

The fighting continued on for several minutes as before. Amy's growing hammers liquefied everything they hit. Mighty tore arm after regrowing arm off one of his duplicates. Frankie screamed and vibrated apart anyone who came too close. Knuckles punched dents into the heads of every creature which came in front of him. Cheese soon felt like a yo-yo, being bounced back and forth from Cream's hand to various M. The Chaotix fought with everything they had. Fiona leaped and kicked around the M until she felt dizzy. Big broke his fishing rod swinging through so many aliens. All the while, the only thing Super Sonic or Super Shadow had to do was to get close enough to an M before they would melt.

Super Sonic melted the last copy of himself and scanned the crowd for Shadow. He Chaos Controlled over to him, grabbed Shadow, then Chaos Controlled a ways below the platform of M. From here, they could still see the lower half of Eggman's robot jutting out of the sky, and the bad doctor himself even further below, cutting his losses. Sonic looked at Shadow. "We can't do this. They can do everything we can do, and then some!"

"Sonic, you are the last person I'd expect to hear that from." Shadow frowned and crossed his arms. "How can I be sure I'm not talking to some cheap copy of you?"

"Put it there." Sonic held forward his hand.

Shadow shook hands. Neither of them melted. "Ok. What do_ you_ suppose we do?"

Sonic thought for a while.

"There they are!"

Both looked up. Several copied forms of flying friends, and even a dozen creatures neither had ever seen before, flew down towards them.

"Chao Control!" Shadow teleported himself and Sonic to the other side of the moon. "Let them find us_ now._"

"Good going, Shadow!" Sonic gave him a thumbs up.

Shadow let out a "Hump," and crossed his arms. "Now, how to win back Mobius."

"We need to attract someone that they haven't copied yet," Sonic grinned.

"Like…?" Shadow waved him on.

"Silver the Hedgehog." Sonic smirked.

Shadow floated there, slightly stunned for a second. "How are we going to get him into this time frame?"

"Well, all we have to do is cause a huge blip in the time line, and I know just the thing to do it!" Sonic held up his right hand. "Chaos…"

"NOT SO FAST!" Silver appeared between them, glowing sky blue. "For shame, Sonic! Purposely messing up the time line like that!"

Sonic laughed. "But I haven't done anything yet!"

_FLASH!_ Blaze glared at him from behind Shadow. "Let's keep it that way!"

"Now that we're here," Marine held out her hands. "We might as well help you deal with your little problem, mates."

"That's the best thing I've heard all day!" Sonic shared his power with Silver, Blaze, and Marine, letting them all transform to Super State.

"Sonic," Shadow led the way back to the floating platform. "What was that all about?"

"It was all about getting me to this time frame, Shadow." Silver dodged a stray asteroid.

"Not that. Where were we going to go?"

Sonic smirked. "Nowhere."

Suddenly another behemoth monster appeared in front of them. "Ready or not, here we come," it said.

"Alien at twelve o clock!" Marine zoomed on past it, causing it to melt. "Catch it, Silver! But don't let it touch you!"

"I know what to do," Silver caught it with telekinesis and carried it along. "Wow, it sure is a squirmy one."

"Here we are." Shadow motioned to the giant floating plane above them. "You ready?"

"Sure!" Silver threw the shiny blob back up with its buddies and flew above the field. "Let's see, how should we do this?"

With the playing field spread out below, it was easy for them to see who was real and what wasn't. Sonic, Shadow, Blaze, and Marine fought off any liquid creature that got too close. Silver rounded up the Mobians safely, then wrapped up the entire field into an epic sided drop of mercury. "Ok! All done!"

"YAH HOO!" Sonic shouted, free falling with the Egg-Nightmare and blasting apart any piece too large to burn in the atmospher. "Let's go home and see what these guys were up to!"

"Agreed." Blaze nodded. "Doctor Eggman has some explaining to do."

Shadow flew down to catch up. "I'm sure you have as many questions for him as I do."

"We're not coming with you," Blaze pulled Marine out of formation. "After all, you and I still have to catch that virus."

"Yeah, we sure wouldn't want _that_ to get loose..." Marine smiled wildly. "You caught us finishing the job!"

"You're going back to the future so you can get sick?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"No, silly!" Marine rolled her eyes. "The virus is-"

"None of their concern!" Blaze's aura flashed with the tone of her voice. "We must be leaving, Marine."

"Ga-bye Mates!" she waved.

"Well, see you around then." Super Sonic waved back.

Silver also waved. "I'll be there in a sec!" He turned to Sonic. "Don't you EVER do that again!"

"But I didn't even do anything!" he complained.

"You were _going_ to, Faker." Shadow shrugged. _And I guess I'll never know what._


	12. Epilogue: Morning

Morning

"Well? Egghead?"

The sight of Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver with a giant shiny sphere floating behind them wasn't exactly welcome in Eggman's privet scheming lab.

Silver brought the giant (smaller than it had been, due to the creatures' apparent undefined volume) ball of silver liquid forward. "Is this part of yet another one of your attempts to destroy the world?"

"Why would _I_ want to destroy the world?" Eggman folded his hands. "You really need to work on your history, Silver. How can you can't take over the planet if there is no planet to take over?"

Silver quickly glanced at Shadow, but returned with a comment. "I, uh... hadn't given that much thought."

Eggman pointed to the blob. "Why don't you let them speak for themselves?"

Sonic frowned. "You mean set them loose on the entire planet? I think not!"

"They've _been_ loose on the entire planet for almost a month and nobody has noticed."

Sonic reasoned it in his head. "Ok, but we're not going to let it go anywhere." He nodded to Silver.

Silver opened a small hole in his hold, and a drop spilled out onto the floor.

The drop grew to a puddle, split, and grew up to an colorless personify of a Mobian to the extreme average. Large round head, skinny limbs, short tail, large eyes, big mouth. "Greetings," it said.

"Who and what are you?" Shadow asked.

"I am the leader of my fellows." It pointed its hand to the blob. "But what we call ourselves is inexpressible to biological manifestations of an oral communication system. We travel, adding to our vast territory and greater knowledge."

"Why Mobius?" Silver asked. "Why couldn't you rip apart some other rock in space, huh?!"

"Your planet sustained complex life forms, so we thought we would have a look." It looked to Dr. Eggman. "That which you call Eggman did not want this planet in our empire, and asked us to leave in a rather aggressive manner."

"You attacked them?" Sonic looked at Eggman.

"We did not want to leave." It looked back at Sonic. "You see, it has been a long time since we have faced any _challenge._ When your Eggman said to us this, an all or nothing challenge, we accepted." It pointed to Silver. "We did not anticipate the Eggman's usage of you who is from the future."

"Eggman used me?" Silver looked at Eggman.

"You weren't fighting to maintain this planet's separation from our territory?" It looked surprised.

Sonic put a hand on Silver's shoulder. "Yes, we _were_ helping Eggman this time."

Eggman smiled smugly.

Shadow nodded to Silver, then looked to it. "What do you plan to do now?"

"Would you be so understanding," it motioned to the ball of goo. "We would continue on our way and not trouble you any further. This will be so as long as your stars shine. If of nothing else but consequence in your eyes, we are also true to our word."

"You heard the man." Eggman nodded at Silver. "Let them go."

"But…"

"Silver," Shadow chuckled. "I highly doubt any of them would even think to bother us from now on."

Silver shrugged. "Very well." The telekinesis bubble around the aliens faded away. "If you say so..."

Sonic opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head.

"Thank you for a good challenge, Eggman." It bowed to them all, then melted and bounced into the floating sphere. Then the ball of silver goo shimmered, and melded through the walls towards outer space.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Eggman asked the hedgehogs.

"I'm going back to the future." Silver powered down, fading back to his usual white. "After I spread these rings far and wide."

"Sounds like a good idea." Sonic powered down also. "Then I'm going on vacation, and no one is going to hear from me for a _long_ while."

"Let me guess, home?" Shadow's fur turned back to its normal black.

Sonic shook his head and glared at Shadow. "Not anymore!"

Silver laughed. "I'll be sure to look this one up in the history books! Chaos Control." Then he disappeared.

"I think I'll also vacate the area." Eggman opened the door to an elevator and stepped inside. "My next project won't be so crippled by you lousy space warping rodents. Ta ta!" The door closed.

"So what about you, Shadow?" Sonic walked outside with him. "Where are you going after this?"

"I'm going to have to explain to GUN where I've been all this time. Chaos Control!" Shadow disappeared.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Sonic ran outside, as fast as he could go, just grateful for the simple pleasure of running.

"There he is!"

Sonic slowed down, looking up. "Jack! Frankie! And…"

Jack flew above Sonic, holding Frankie around the waist. In Frankie's arms were a pair of chao eggs. "Ain't got names yet, but it's been decided that they ain't gonna look like nothing but twins!" she smiled.

"We'll be flying the fair way afar home!" Jack winked. "Wish us luck!"

"Good luck!" Sonic saluted them.

Frankie smiled, cuddling the chao eggs close she said, "Ain't you hear? My wishing star wished us luck!"

Jack laughed and flew away, south east.

"Wishing star… Stars shine…" Sonic glanced at the sun, then he changed directions.

* * *

Far north, with snow on top and a foggy view of the distant ocean, several pictures still scattered in a volcano's bowel. Sonic stood on the highest point of the bowel ridge, watching the sunset over the ocean with a tattered green scarf wrapped around his neck.

"Did you have a question, back there?"

Sonic turned around.

It was his M duplicate, the one with a perfect red scarf around its neck.

"What made you think that?" he turned in the snow.

"I know you, Sonic. You opened your mouth but didn't say anything. And that didn't sit well with me."

Sonic nodded. "Why did your guy say, 'stars'? Mobius only has one sun."

"Our leader was not talking about the star that warms this plant ridden rock in space." It waved to the setting sun, then looked at Sonic. "Our leader was talking about those like you."

"Like me?" Sonic thought of Shadow. "Other hedgehogs with supersonic speed? Because I only know of one."

"No, not like that." It formed a large thick power ring with one hand, and a mimicked Chaos Emerald with the other. "You are a star, your friend is a star." It smirked, as though expecting Sonic to ask the next question.

"And the twins? Were they stars too?" The sun dipped below the water, and the sky was suddenly darker.

The ring and Emerald melted into its hands. It pointed up. "There are many stars. Some are bright." The first couple stars appeared in the night sky. The fake Sonic brought its hand down. "And some are dim."

"What was he talking about when he said, 'as long as the stars shine'?"

It pointed to Sonic. "Stars only shine when it is dark."

"One last question." Sonic stepped closer. "What would happen to us if we hadn't won your little power play?"

It smirked at him. "Why Sonic! It was only a game."


	13. Chapter 12 Author's Notes

**Author's notes**

**What if** The M War had happened differently? What does it take to seek an impossible hero's help? How would Sonic and co take it if they were asked for help? From here on out, most of my stories are born as questions such as these. The questions are asked and I, the artist author, shall answer them.

Frankie and Jack live right on the edge of their equivalent to the Mississippi River in North America. Their father died several years ago, and their doting mother is probably one of the least respected that I've ever created. But I assure you that SHE DID NOT DIE of a heart attack when she discovered Francine had ran away to go find Jack. After all, she knew exactly where her daughter was the entire time. She watched the television.

**Credits**

Unlike the 'spit and polished' The M War, I largely wrote When You Wish Upon A Star on my own. It was the first book that I have kept out of those I've ever written, and also the biggest shove that basically forced me to write the above mentioned prequel. However, this story was the relative beginning of my personal Mobius.

**Likewise:**

Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Big, Vanilla, Cheese, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Mighty, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Jet, Wave, Storm, the Tornado, Extreme Gear, Fiona, Silver, Blaze, Marine, the Chaos Emeralds, Mobius, and Sonic all belong to SEGA, an honorable organization to which I have no official affiliation other than being a costumer and a fan.

**On the other hand…**

Francine and Jack Nightflyer, their mother, the M, Egg-Nightmare (forgive me if there is a cannon robot with that name, or a similar acting robot with a different name), the crystal domes, and whatever Sonic's idea was, all belong to me. If ever anyone wants to borrow any character or object that I thought up, all you need to do is send me a PM asking for permission to use the character that you name.

**Inspirations**

I guess that this book was largely inspired by what the alien said at the end of the Star Trek DS9 episode "Move Along Home". In _that_ story, the aliens conned the local bar tender into playing a game that caused a number of our main crew members to disappear as the pieces or players of this dangerous gamble. With every round the stakes were doubled, players removed from the board, and profits lost! Poor Quark was at his wits end by the last five minutes of the episode when Captain Sisco and the other missing crew members suddenly appeared out of thin air. Irate with his Gama Quadrent visitors, the Captain complained to the aliens. But then the alien, packing up his fancy playing board, looked at the captain and said, "It is only a _game_."

I didn't really listen to any songs for this book, but would-be credit songs might include "When You Wish Upon a Star" by Disney.


End file.
